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What Office Delve does for Office 365 users

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What Office Delve does for Office 365 users

Office 365 is a cloud-based productivity suite that is popular with small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It’s offered in a wide variety of subscription plans, making it even more popular among businesses. To deal with users’ concerns with storing/accessing data within Office 365, Microsoft has released Office Delve.

What is Office Delve?

Office Delve is a cloud-based data visualization tool that helps business users get the most out of their data related to Office 365. This nifty tool allows you to:

  • Discover new information – Delve displays information from different sources in Office 365 that you may find useful for what you’re currently working on.
  • Discover what you need – Documents you have seen before, or have recently worked on, are highlighted and made easier for you to find, regardless of where they are stored. This makes it less taxing to find work you have been doing in the past, and continue from where you left off.
  • Discover new connections – Typing a name in Office 365 will allow you to see what a user is working on, their connections, and even connect with them to build relationships and share information. 

How does it work?

Microsoft has powered Delve with a tool called Graph to provide users with information they’ll likely find useful. Graph maps the relationships between the various Office 365 users in your company, and the content/information related to them.

This “map” is then used by Delve to provide users with what they need, when they need it. Content and information is displayed on a card-based screen, which can be found under the Delve tab in the main Office 365 launch screen.

Aside from content such as profile information, links to documents, or information, users can also see: likes, views, comments, and tags, which brings a deeper social integration into Office 365.

Delve also orders content a number of different ways, including:

  • What you’ve recently worked on – shows you content in card-form that you have recently opened or worked on
  • Content that has been shared with you – shows the content your colleagues have shared with you
  • Content that has been presented to you – shows content that colleagues have presented recently, or content that has been sent to you

While this idea works great on the desktop, many Office 365 users access their systems from their mobile devices. The good news is that Delve is also available to mobile users. On your device, you can browse cards with files, swipe left or right on each card to view files, and even search for colleagues and view files they have shared with you and their recent activity.

Is my data safe with Office Delve?

In Delve, only you can see your documents because there are no changes in permissions. Unauthorized third parties cannot view your activities, like what documents you opened, what emails you sent out and received, or what conversations you had on Skype for Business. Other people can see that you edited a document, but only if they have access to that same file.

If you are looking to learn more about Delve, contact us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

What is a web host?

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What is a web host?

Businesses need to have an online presence these days, and that usually starts with having a website. But to access your website on the internet, you need to partner with a web host. This blog post breaks down the basics of a web host and the two most common types of hosting.

What is a web host?
A web host sells or leases memory space on its servers so your website can have a virtual location on the internet. Their services include online storage for all of your site’s files and web pages.

Many web hosts also offer domain name hosting, which creates a web address that users can type to access your website (e.g. google.com, inc.com, etc.). Combine these two hosting services and you have the main foundations for your website.

You can also get domain-based email addresses (e.g. ryan@google.com) and website databases from web hosts. Essentially, your web host can store everything your website needs.

When you sign up with a web host, you will usually pay a monthly fee, which the company uses to maintain and invest in new servers for hosting, increase access speeds, and provide better services.

What are the two most common types of web hosting?
There are hundreds, if not thousands of web hosts around the world, but they usually fall in one of two categories:

  • Shared hosting – Multiple, different websites are stored on one physical hosting server. Sites have their own partition (section of storage) that is kept separate from other sites on the same server.
  • Dedicated hosting – One website is hosted per server. This means you have all of the server’s capacity to yourself.

Which hosting type is best for my business website?
Most websites use shared hosting because it’s more affordable while still offering generally stable access and access speeds. This is the ideal hosting type for most small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with fairly simple websites.

If your website is going to be large (e.g. thousands of pages) and you are going to host complex features like advanced eCommerce, streaming, etc., then it would be best to opt for a dedicated hosting service. Examples of large sites include Google, Amazon, and government sites, among others.

With numerous web hosts out there, selecting the right fit can be quite challenging. But with our IT expertise and solutions, we can help you find the web host that will work best for your business needs. Contact us today to get started with your online presence.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Analytics are critical for effective data backups

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Analytics are critical for effective data backups

Collecting data is vital for keeping records, tracking performance, and delighting customers. With so much on the line, it’s never been more important to have backups of all your files. If your data is growing at a rate that’s hard to keep up with, analytics tools are an awesome way to figure out which backups matter most and how to prioritize them.

An excess of information

Nowadays, too much data may sound like a good thing. But for many organizations, creating backups in real-time isn’t economical. So if you’ve wondered how you should structure your backup plan to prioritize the critical files, we have an answer: Analytics tools.

Analyzing vast amounts of data quickly and affordably has never been easier for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The key is working with experienced IT professionals to customize a solution to meet your needs. As an MSP (managed IT services provider), we’ve spent years designing business continuity and disaster recovery plans, often for SMBs that couldn’t create backups every hour.

A smarter solution

Depending on your needs, we can set up sophisticated analytics tools that determine what is most essential to your business’s day-to-day operations. These solutions prioritize data in order of importance and translate that to a backup structure that ensures the right data is safe and sound should disaster strike.

These tools integrate with your existing data-backup solution but provide it with a map of what to save first, and what to leave for later. That results in faster recovery times in the event of untimely outages or disruptions. Furthermore, using analytics increases efficiency and decreases overall backup costs by providing a better picture of what is unimportant versus what is unnecessary.

SMBs have been the drivers of innovation for decades because, as they say, “necessity is the mother of invention.” So whether you’re interested in top-of-the-line IT solutions or just need to get a better handle on disaster recovery, we’re ready to create a customized backup solution, just for you. Take a second to analyze that, then give us a call.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Beware of distributed spam distraction

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Beware of distributed spam distraction

It’s frustrating to receive dozens of spam messages in your email inbox. Spam mail is so easy to delete, which is why most people think it’s just a harmless annoyance. But hackers have devised a way to make use of spam mail for criminal purposes. It’s called distributed spam distraction, and here’s what you need to know about it.

Understanding DSD
Distributed spam distraction (DSD) is designed to inundate your inbox with thousands of nonsensical email. There are no dangerous links, ads, or attachments involved, just random excerpts of text stolen from books and websites. What’s worse, the email and IP addresses used are all different, so victims can’t simply block a specific sender.

These attacks last anywhere from 12 to 24 hours and can flood inboxes with as many as 60,000 messages. While they may seem like harmless annoyances, the true purpose of DSD is to draw victims’ attention away from what hackers are doing behind the scenes.

And what hackers are doing is exploiting your personally identifiable information (PII) to make unauthorized purchases or pilfer cash directly from your accounts. The DSD acts as a sort of smokescreen to hide payment confirmation messages behind a deluge of spam messages.

New tactics
Over the years, hackers have developed new tactics involving DSD. Several reports have shown that, instead of nonsensical emails, hackers are using automated software to have their targets sign up for thousands of free accounts and newsletters to distract them with authentic messages. This allows DSD blasts to slip past spam filters that have been designed to weed out malicious code and gibberish text used by traditional DSD attacks.

What’s even more worrying is that any ill-intentioned individual can go on the dark web and pay for DSD services. They just have to provide a hacker with their target’s name, email address, and credit card numbers — all of which can also be purchased on the dark web — and pay as little as $40 to send 20,000 spam messages.

How to stop it
DSD is a clear sign that your account has been hijacked, so whenever you receive dozens of emails in quick succession, contact your bank to cancel any unfamiliar transactions and change your login credentials as soon as possible. It’s also important to update your anti-spam software (or get one if you still don’t have one) to protect your inbox from future DSD attacks.

Hackers only initiate DSD attacks after they’ve obtained their target’s email address and personal information, so make sure your accounts and identity are well protected. You should regularly change your passwords and pins, enable multifactor authentication, set up text alerts for whenever online purchases are made in your name, and be careful about sharing personal information.

For more tips on how to deal with DSD attacks and other cyberattacks, call us today. We offer powerful tools and expert advice that will ensure your business’s safety.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Considerations for server replacement

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Considerations for server replacement

If you’re thinking about replacing a server for your small business, then that probably means your company is experiencing success and is starting to grow. That’s great news. But is it really time to invest in a new one? Or does waiting too long risk slowing your business down? Either way, it’s important to consider your decision carefully. As a business owner, you should take the time to answer the following questions before deciding on your aging server.

When do my servers need to be replaced?

This is a difficult question, but there are two factors you will want to consider — age and performance. The useful life of a server is around three years. While it’s not unheard of for servers to function properly beyond year three, relying on them beyond this point can be risky as hardware problems occur more often. This means you will have to deal with costly repairs and possible unpredictable downtime.

Performance is another factor to consider. Even if your servers are only a year old, it doesn’t make sense to keep them around until year three if they are slow and too costly to maintain. It’s important to do a cost-benefit analysis in these situations and look at how much money you will lose in repairs and downtime and then compare it to the cost of buying new hardware.

Do I have an alternative to buying new servers?

Believe it or not, the answer to your server problems might not necessarily be purchasing more physical hardware. One way to avoid this is by embracing virtualization. This process allows your servers to be stored and maintained off-site with everything being delivered to your office via the internet. 

There are two notable benefits of virtualizing your servers. First, you don’t have to spend a ton of money on new equipment. Second, virtualization is a scalable technology, meaning you only pay for the data capacity you use. For instance, if you only need two and a half servers, you can do that. This is in contrast to having physical equipment which would require your business to either make do with two servers or splurge and buy the third one even if you didn’t need all of that space.

Of course there are a few things you need to consider before making the switch to server virtualization. One of the biggest issues is security. Ask yourself if you feel comfortable keeping all of your data off-site. While this isn’t a concern for some companies, others may not see this as palatable. There are several workarounds to this issue, including the hybrid option where you keep sensitive data on-site and everything else off-site.

Can I do anything to prevent a full-scale server replacement?

Yes. It’s certainly possible for you to buy some time and give your current servers additional life, but these are short-term fixes, not long-term solutions. Server upgrades are a good place to start if your servers are less than three years old but are degrading in performance. Installingadditional CPUs or memory may increase server performance at a fraction of the cost of buying new servers.

You can also utilize old servers for non-critical workloads. It’s possible to extend the life of servers that may have four or five years of wear-and-tear on them via repurposing. Instead of swapping out all of your servers, use the old ones for non-critical processes and purchase new ones to handle critical workloads. This will help you get a better ROI on your technology while avoiding a wholesale hardware purchase which could cripple your budget.

If you have any questions about your servers and how you can increase their performance, get in touch with us today. We can help you procure new hardware or show you the benefits of virtualization.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Better ways to use Office 365

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Better ways to use Office 365

With Office 365, your business can gain a lot, but you won’t benefit from it if you don’t know how to use this service. Do you want your employees to be more productive? You can’t go wrong if you follow these simple steps to boost your business.

Get the staff aboard

To maximize your company’s productivity with Office 365, make sure that every employee with a computer uses it. While this may be easier said than done, you can easily promote the service by encouraging the officers of your company to use it first. When your executives, managers, and top employees use Office 365, others will be persuaded to do the same.  

Train employees

If your employees don’t know how to use Office 365, they won’t be productive, and the cloud service becomes a wasted investment. This is why training is vital. Teach your staff the ins and outs of the platform so they can take full advantage of it. 

One way to train your staff is to make or assemble short training videos. These are easy to digest and will be remembered by employees. They can be viewed over and over again and used anytime. This saves management the trouble of training people. 

Utilize core tools

When you first used Office 365, what did you like about it? You were probably sold on the idea that it increases staff productivity since it allows employees to work and collaborate anywhere. If you’re not utilizing this service for that purpose, now is the perfect time to do so. 

Some of the tools that increase productivity are OneDrive for Business (OD4B), SharePoint, and Skype for Business. OD4B and SharePoint allow employees to upload and save documents to a virtual drive, share that document with another group or user, and edit it at the same time. This gives everyone the ability to access that document and work wherever they want. 

Because it is a flexible communication channel, Skype for Business also enhances productivity since employees, colleagues, and customers can communicate easily. From online meetings to conference calls, video calls to instant messaging, you have a wealth of options for instant communication. 

Be more secure

Not only can a security breach cost you money, it can also destroy your business. While Office 365 already has built-in security with Azure Active Directory, it’s always wise to be cautious of the files you add and share on the service. If you upload files with sensitive company information to the platform, make sure you control them.   

These four productivity tips can help your business grow. If you’d like to learn more, or need additional training on Office 365, give us a call. We are happy to help you!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Are you maximizing your social media potential?

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Are you maximizing your social media potential?

Social media as a component of marketing is continuously growing its own significant heartbeat in the industry — so much so that many businesses nowadays make exclusive use of it for their advertising and promotional needs.

Having great content on your site is the magnet that attracts visitors. However, when there is too much competition on the most popular platforms, it can be difficult to drive results based on social media reputation alone. To reap rewards from social media marketing, you need to devise new methods and augment your strategy with social media tools to stand out from the crowd.

Meetup

Meetup is a great site to plan face-to-face meetings with people with similar interests. Does your company sell hiking, camping, and backpacking products? Organize a meetup for the people in your community to go on a hike. You really can’t get a better customer interaction than engaging with them through the activities they love.

Eventbrite

Eventbrite is a formal events planning platform that helps you organize, plan, and market your event, along with an added bonus: recruitment potential. You can easily market yourself as an expert in an industry to either attract freelancers or educate potential customers about the problems you aim to solve for them.

Answer Forums

Popular answer forums such as Yahoo! Answers, Quora, and even certain Reddit sub-channels such as /r/askmeanything or /r/whatisthisthing let netizens crowdsource information about certain industries or products. Many companies use these to promote their brand by answering questions, most especially those that are within their expertise. This helps establish credibility and organic connection with prospective clients.

Disqus

Disqus is a great way to facilitate dialogue while protecting privacy and upholding etiquette and other standards. You can embed Disqus onto your online content such as videos or blog articles so that people can voice out their concerns or opinions but in a way that helps prevent flaming (the act of deliberately insulting or provoking other people online). Disqus lets moderators monitor and regulate responses closely so that the conversation remains civil and productive.

Slack

Most people who use the messaging app Slack see it as a way to communicate with friends and coworkers. However, with a little creativity, you can join conversations from all over the world to boost your online presence. There are countless channels devoted to industries, categories, hobbies and more. All you have to do is insert yourself and your company into the conversation to get people talking about your business!

It’s hard to deny that technology has made our lives more complicated. It can feel a little overwhelming at times. Thankfully, the answer is simple: partner with a managed technology provider. For a never-ending source of information on reputation and social media management, get in touch with us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Hacks to boost the speed of your WordPress site

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Hacks to boost the speed of your WordPress site

We’ve all experienced the frustration that comes with a slow-loading website. While 10 years ago, we would have waited patiently as a site loaded with all the urgency of a sloth, today’s internet surfers won’t hesitate to close the tab. Most expect at least a three-second load time, while some won’t settle for wait times over two. So how can you create a faster WordPress website that millennial users won’t close? Here are some ideas to get you started.0

Keep WordPress and plugins up to date

While you may already know that updating WordPress and plugins will keep your website secure, you may not know that doing this also increases your site’s speed. So if you want a fast site, install those updates as soon as they become available.

Choose a host wisely

Your host can make or break your website, so before you select your host, do some research on the various options out there, particularly on their website speed and uptime.

Also, while your first impulse may be to choose shared hosting because of its low cost, be aware that it’s also going to be your slowest option in terms of speed because many websites are simultaneously relying on the same server for bandwidth.

If it’s not an option for small- or medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use a dedicated server because of cost restrictions, their best alternative in the middle price and performance range is a virtual private server (VPS). This acts like a dedicated server in terms of functionality, but still technically uses a shared server. Regardless, using a VPS will give you a boost in speed over typical shared hosting.

Keep your site lean

The leaner your site is, the faster its speed will be. To create a lean site, be mindful of these four aspects:

  1. Theme – While the promise of a versatile theme can spark the imagination, actually implementing one can set you back in terms of speed. When a theme has a ton of features, the amount of code to produce those features can bog down your site. To avoid this scenario, test the theme demos to see how long it takes for them to load. If it’s more than a few seconds, look for a lighter theme that loads faster.
  2. Design – Similar to theme, design elements have the ability to dramatically slow down the speed of your site. Simple sites are faster, so think carefully about what ads, images, and extras you’re going to use.
  3. Plugins – Not all plugins are created equal; some run fast and others slow. To tell one from the other, you can use special plugins that show the impact a plugin has on your site’s load time. Another rule to follow is that fewer plugins equals more speed. So think twice before your next plugin installation spree.
  4. Images – Bulky images can also slow down your site. And while many raw images are around 3,000 to 4,000 pixels wide, most featured images are only 600–800 pixels wide. To reduce image weight and gain a faster site, resize them to the exact size they’ll appear on your screen.

Mind your plugins

You should stick to only the essential plugins to speed up your site. Cache plugins like W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache can provide more speed by caching every aspect of your site and reducing its download times. Another helpful plugin is Lazy Load. It speeds up your site by loading the elements at the top of the website first, where viewers are looking when they first visit your site. Before installing the Lazy Load plugin, check your Theme Options to see if you already have it.

Create redirects sparingly

If a page on your site needs to be redirected to another page, it can really slow down your site so it’s best to use them as little as possible. And to ensure you aren’t using any unnecessary links without knowing it, use the Redirect mapper tool or similar alternatives that help you find redirects you don’t need.

If you implement some or all of the speed tips above, you’re sure to see a noticeable difference in the speed of your site. Do you need more tips to optimize your website? Do you need help with web or IT matters? We’re just a phone call away.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Comparing the top business dashboards

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Comparing the top business dashboards

A dashboard is a single display that provides all the information you need to make important business decisions and manage your company. While dashboards are generally helpful, you need to choose the one that works best for your company’s objectives and goals. Here are three types of business dashboards to consider.

Strategic dashboards

Ideal for senior managers and executives, strategic dashboards are designed to help identify potential opportunities for business expansion and improvement. This type of dashboard gives a bird’s-eye view of your business and track performance metrics against enterprise-wide strategic goals.

They summarize performance over set time frames: past month, quarter, or year. They can contain anything from overall sales numbers to sales and revenue comparisons to inventory levels, making it easy for executives to understand the overall health of the organization and monitor the long-term company strategy.

Operational dashboards

Business owners use operational dashboards to monitor and measure in real time the effectiveness and efficiency of their employees’ progress in relation to their targets. Since these dashboards focus on tracking operational processes, they are often more detailed than strategic dashboards and are usually viewed by junior levels of management multiple times throughout the day.

They are also commonly found in departments that need to respond to critical information quickly, such as marketing and operations. They help departments stay proactive and ahead of problems. For example, marketing teams can use this type of dashboard to monitor their campaign’s metrics such as cost per acquisition, total number of clicks, total acquisitions gained, and the total amount spent. Any significant changes would immediately alert the team. The operations team of manufacturing firms, on the other hand, may use this to track products manufactured, number of defects, complaints, and returns. They are then alerted right away when performance falls below targets.

Analytical dashboards

When it comes to creating and implementing strong business strategies, understanding the trends and events in your data is crucial. Analytical dashboards use volumes of data collected over time so you could compare current against historic data, enjoy in-depth analysis, identify patterns and opportunities, and determine why processes are working in certain departments. These dashboards present complex data, utilizing complex models and what-if statements, so they are commonly just used by staff with advanced training such as business analysts.

How do I know which dashboard to choose?

To help you choose which dashboard best suits your needs, you can ask yourself the following questions:

#1. What business problems are we trying to solve?

  • Strategic dashboards – Top-line organizational KPIs
  • Operational dashboards – Data awareness and time-sensitive data
  • Analytical dashboards – Trends or deeper insights

#2. Who will be using the dashboards?

  • Strategic dashboards – Executives, directors
  • Operational dashboards – Business managers
  • Analytical dashboards – Business analysts, data analysts

#3. What are our goals?

  • Strategic dashboards – Strategic goals, such as achieving KPI targets
  • Operational dashboards – Employee awareness and tracking against goals
  • Analytical dashboards – Analytic goals, such as visibility into key processes

Dashboards concentrate all data, metrics, and parameters in one place, bringing a totally new dimension to business intelligence. Your company can significantly benefit from the right dashboard. If you’re looking to implement dashboards for the first time or to enhance the functionality of your current dashboard, get in touch with us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto

Keeping your email safe

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Keeping your email safe

If you think your email is safe from hackers, think again. A lack of sufficient email security measures can result in data theft, unauthorized access to sensitive information, and malware attacks. Here are some tips to secure your email account from unwanted intruders and the many troubles that come with them.

Use separate email accounts

Most people use a single email account for all their personal needs. As a result, information from websites, newsletters, shopping deals, and messages from work get sent to this one inbox. But what happens when someone breaks into it? There’s a good chance they would be able to gain access to everything else.

Having at least two separate email accounts will not only boost your security, but will also increase your productivity. You can have a personal account to communicate with your friends and family, while another is used solely for work-related communications.

Set strong passwords

Too many email accounts have predictable passwords. You might be surprised to learn that email passwords like “123456,” “qwerty,” and “password” are still the most common around. For the sake of security, set longer passwords (or passphrases) that contain a good mix of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Make sure these passwords are unique to that account to keep all your other password-protected accounts safe.

You should also consider enabling multifactor authentication (MFA). This creates an extra layer of security by requesting for another method to verify your identity like a fingerprint scan or a temporary activation code sent to your mobile phone.

Beware of email scams

When you see a link in an email, don’t click on it unless you’ve assessed its authenticity. You never know where those links might lead you. Sometimes they can be safe, but other times they can infect your computer with malware.

If you’re expecting a file from your friend or family, then go ahead and open the attachment. It’s always good to know the person sending the file. But be wary of attachments in emails from strangers. Even if the file name looks like a JPEG image, you should never open it. Attached files may seem harmless, but they may actually be a malicious program ready to latch itself onto your computer the moment you click on it.

These types of attacks are known as phishing and they can be remarkably clever. For example, cybercriminals may masquerade as high-profile companies like Amazon, Facebook, or the Bank of America to catch their victims off guard. They might even create a sense of urgency by claiming that there’s an issue with your account, and that you should send them information or click on a dangerous link to “confirm” your personal details. Even if there was a genuine issue with your account, these companies would never ask something so suspicious over email. If you get these messages, contact the company directly through a verified website or phone number — not the contact details on the email.

Monitor account activity

Periodically watch over your account activity. Make sure to limit access privileges to apps if you want to ensure maximum privacy and security. Also, check for any suspicious activities in your logs like unusual devices and IP addresses that have accessed your account. This indicates that hackers may have successfully broken into your account. If this is the case, sign out of all web sessions and change your password as soon as possible.

Encrypt emails and update your software

Email encryption ensures that any message you send won’t be intercepted and viewed by unauthorized users. Meanwhile, installing the latest updates for your anti-malware, firewalls, and email security software filters potential email scams and fixes any vulnerabilities hackers can exploit.

Protecting your email accounts from various threats can be a daunting process, but with the right support, it should be effortless. Talk to us today for all your cybersecurity needs.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.


Source: Pronto