Category: News

UpdateIT Joins Insight Integration Technology

Date: May 22nd 2022

We have exciting news: Update IT, has been seeking a partner to grow our helpdesk and support depth and provide a higher level of Support Services and Technical expertise to our clients.

To this end we have chosen to join our operations with Insight Integration Technology. By joining forces, we are able to provide a comprehensive and integrated IT service solution to better service our customer’s changing and growing needs.

What does this mean to you?
Its business as usual, but with more technical resources at your disposal.

Background on Insight Integration?
Insight Integration operates approximately 100m from the original UpdateiT offices and we share almost identical philosophies and connection with our clients, which is to go over and above and understand the client’s business as best as we can to ensure we provide suitable and relevant proactive support and design.

Insight Integration has been helping small and medium businesses experience better IT since 1999. Their unique proactive IT Management and hands on approach anticipates potential issues, plans for such events and with continuous monitoring and improvements to systems, helps prevent and reduce problems or deal with them faster should they arise. As a result of our proactive IT management and backed by our focused customer support, we deliver consistent and optimal performance from your IT, giving you the confidence to get on with business.

Benefits from joining Insight Integration Technology:
• Access to a larger helpdesk team
• Access to more high-level Engineers
• Access to a broader range of IT products and services
• Access to high level expertise in alternative technologies including cloud services
• Best practice IT Administration and Management
• Proactive monitoring systems

We trust that you are as excited as we are for this new era in our support businesses, and we look forward to providing you with better service, more responsive helpdesk, and greater expertise from our larger and now more advanced team.

Further information and details will follow in the coming weeks. We greatly appreciate your cooperation.

Kind Regards
Hercules Kantarelis
Business Development Manager
Insight Integration Technology Pty Ltd
25/05/2022

Microsoft Teams Calling – All your communications in one platform… from anywhere!

Covid-19 forced many changes to the way we do business. One of the major changes was the widespread adoption of Microsoft Teams, with over 90% of fortune 100 companies using the system.

MS Teams has become the hub of internal company communications with great features that also loop in external customers and suppliers for video meetings or webinars. Chances are you’re already using (and loving) Microsoft Teams to collaborate with your workers and colleagues wherever they are. Unfortunately, traditional business phone systems can’t keep up, forcing people to swap back and forth between using MS Teams, their mobile phone and the desk phone, none of which were working together. In short, it’s been a compromise.

But now there’s a simple solution.

Did you know that with Microsoft Teams Calling, you can now make phone calls through an online collaboration system? Take your team’s collaboration capacity to the next level! Yes, Microsoft Teams Calling can completely replace the PBX (Private Branch Exchange) phone system sitting in your office, freeing you and your co-workers up to continue working from anywhere.

Microsoft Teams Calling keeps all the MS Teams features you love while also allowing you to make and receive normal business calls, effectively creating a single collaboration platform for all your internal and external contacts. The power of this is so much greater than the sum of its parts. Your business will have a unified communication platform, improving your collaboration and productivity.

Is Microsoft Teams Calling for you?

That’s a great question. Let’s imagine what your workday could look like with Microsoft Teams Calling. You decide to work from home for the morning and a sales call comes through the main office sales line. You pick up the call easily on your laptop. Then while driving into the office, you use your mobile phone to follow up on this order.

Once you’re in the office you take another customer call, though this time you can take the call via your PC. After hanging up with the customer you decide to check stock levels in the warehouse, taking your mobile phone with you, in case another sales call comes through.

Reception receives a call and is able to transfer it directly to your mobile while you’re in the warehouse. You’re then able to forward that call to your colleague right from your mobile, as you know they’re the best person to assist the customer. This is the power of Microsoft Teams Calling.

How does Microsoft Teams Calling work?

Microsoft Teams Calling keeps the functionality of a traditional phone system, just using your devices. Your business phone numbers are assigned to the appropriate people within the Microsoft Teams system.  Staff can then just use any laptop, mobile phone or regular handset to make or receive calls. Just download the Teams app and login.

You may be wondering what you’ll get from Microsoft Teams Calling.

  • Increased Connectivity, Collaboration and Productivity
    You’re already enjoying the benefits of Microsoft Teams, but to maximise your team’s connectivity, productivity and collaboration, add Microsoft Teams Calling and cut the ties to your landline!
  • Call from Anywhere
    Make business calls no matter where you are. Whether working in the office, working from home, on the road, in transit at the airport or staying in a hotel, Microsoft Teams Calling will route the calls for you. No more manually forwarding your work phone!
  • Use Any Device
    It couldn’t be simpler – all you need is an internet connection and a device that can run the Teams app. For most of you this will mean your work PC with a headset, but your laptop, tablet and mobile phone will work just as well. Simply choose whichever option suits you.
  • Unified contacts
    With the power of Teams your phone system can access all your Teams contact lists, including your Outlook contacts and even your business CRM system – wherever you’re working.
  • Secure & Reliable
    Just like the Teams you are used to, Teams Calling is backed and protected by Microsoft and uses MS 365 based security including Multi-Factor Authentication. It is easy to secure and manage.
  • Save money
    One of the most compelling reasons for moving to Microsoft Teams Calling is cost. Most PBX phone systems are expensive to use and difficult to maintain, often with costly maintenance contracts attached.  Teams is VoIP based telephony meaning it leverages your current Internet services for all connections.  Secondly, staff can now take advantage of being wireless and take business calls on the go with their computers and mobile phones.
  • Easy to use
    For any company already using Teams, there is very little to no training for staff to be able to use Teams Calling.

One of the most compelling reasons for moving to Microsoft Teams Calling is cost.

Most legacy phone systems are expensive to use and difficult to maintain, often with expensive maintenance contracts attached.  Teams is VoIP based telephony meaning it leverages your current Internet services for all connections.  Secondly, staff can now take advantage of being wireless on the go by using their computers and mobile phones.

Lastly, for any company already using Teams, there is very little to no training for staff to be able to use Teams Calling.

To sum up, let’s look at the Pros and Cons of working with Microsoft Teams.

Pros:

  • Works with your current phone numbers
  • Can be used anywhere by almost any device
  • True Business Grade Phone system
  • Voicemail
  • Conference calls
  • Call forwarding
  • Auto attendant
  • Hold music
  • Easy to use
  • Easy to manage
  • Cost effective – Lower TCO
  • Automatic Business Continuity capability.

Cons:

  • Finding an eWaste Disposal Centre to get rid of your old phones!

The world has changed due to the pandemic. Many businesses like yours are already successfully using Microsoft Teams to overcome the technical and logistical challenges we now face. Microsoft Teams Calling now allows businesses to address the issues of their office-bound phone systems and implement a unified communications platform for the future.

Contact the team at Insight Integration to find out how we can simply and easily get your team to maximum productivity.

Give us a call on 1300 210 212 today!

DHL branding exploited by new scam

DHL Branding

A new email-based cyber-attack exploiting DHL branding has been detected.

This scam is designed to look like a ‘shipping notification’ from DHL shipping. Another, The text of the message advises the recipient that they ‘have DHL shipment’ and asks them to ‘download attached to confirm your shipping details.’

The attachment labelled ‘shipping details pdf’ is actually a .ace file containing trojan malware.

The trojan malware contained in this scam message could be very harmful. So, If you see this message appear in your inbox, please delete it to avoid risking damage to your computer.

Source: MailGuard Blog

Tech Tip: It’s shortcut time!

Here’s some more cool time-saving shortcuts for when you’re working in documents or emails etc:

CTRL + [  – changes the font size down 1 point each time you press it

CTRL + ] – same as above but this one increases the font size by 1 point

CTRL + A – selects all

CTRL + Z – Undo

CTRL + Y – redo

CTRL + P – print

CTRL + S – save. This one is great when working on big documents to regularly save your work.

Connecting Your Business with Virtual Desktops

Desktop virtualisation offers a novel way for businesses to reduce costs, boost efficiency, and even improve network security. It’s little wonder then that the technology has been greeted with widespread enthusiasm. Thirty-six and half percent of businesses surveyed by Evolve IP at the beginning of this year. They already implemented a virtual desktop system, and 97.5 percent of them said they were highly satisfied with it. Moreover, one in three plan to implement a virtual desktop as a service solution over the next three years. Clearly, desktop virtualisation is taking the business world by storm—so what is a virtual desktop and is it the right solution for you?

One computer, thousands of monitors

Desktop virtualisation allows you to connect physical desktops with a remotely hosted operating system (and its applications), regardless of how old or new the receiving desktop is. In other words, a single server provides the computing power for your virtual environment—all your employees need is a screen.

Cut costs and gain speed

One of the chief benefits of virtual desktops is that they save you from spending money on expensive physical desktops. Instead, you can invest in one server and use it to make your business’s computer environment available on multiple inexpensive desktops. There’s no loss of performance capability if you do this. In fact, since you only have to manage one system (on your server), it’s often quicker and smoother.

Secure mobility

Large companies can take advantage of virtual desktops to provide employees with greater flexibility. For example, Suncorp Group is Australia’s largest general insurer and fifth largest bank. It now uses desktop virtualisation to give its employees the freedom to move around the office, work from home, and even access their desktops from the field.

According to Gartner, this approach is also more secure because each virtual desktop is remotely managed to ensure it meets compliance standards. As a result, employees needn’t worry about installing software, backing up files, or scanning for viruses. Moreover, when employees view data, it isn’t transferred to their personal device, but remains in a secure, centralised location.

Traveling light

Virtual desktops free mobile employees from lugging around expensive high-performance machines with disk drives, huge storage capacity, and their pesky need for routine hardware updates. A light laptop with a screen, a keyboard, and an Internet connection is all they need. And if a device ever crashes while running a virtual desktop, it’s immediately isolated. If everybody else in the network can carry on helping your business achieve success.

Virtually perfect

There are a few obvious disadvantages to implementing desktop virtualisation. We can even expect that the technology’s increasing popularity will lead to new ways of improving and creatively employing it. In other words, desktop virtualisation is only going to get better.

EOFY $20,000 asset write-off

In case you missed it in the budget, the government has extended the $20,000 asset write-off for SME’s for another 12 months.

What does this mean?

Until June 30 2018, SME’s with a turnover under $10 million are eligible for an immediate asset deduction up to $20,000.  Speak to your accountant first but in general. Any hardware used in the day to day running of the business is eligible for this write-off.  This includes phone systems, servers, PCs & Notebooks.

So, now is a great time to invest in your businesses growth. First improve productivity or just address those old and outdated systems. They may be vulnerable to security flaws such as the recent “WannaCry” saga.

Call for more information about any hardware, software and security requirements.

Tech Tip: How to start your PC on a schedule

Do you hate waiting for you PC to startup in the morning?
It can be a real pain, particularly if your PC is a little on the old and slow side of things.

Rather than just leave your PC on 24×7 there is another way!
Get your PC to startup automatically beforehand so it’s ready and waiting for when you start work.

First up – talk to your IT provider! Chances are they have systems in place to just this.

If that’s not an option you can do it yourself.
Unfortunately we can’t do this in windows so we have to go through the PC BIOS.

Every brand of PC is a little different, but as a guide:
1. Open your computer BIOS settings menu (do this from the black screen that shows when first powering on your PC).
2. Look for the power settings menu
3. Set the day and time you want your PC to power on.

Moving to the Cloud

I’m moving to the cloud!  I hear SME’s say this more than anything else about IT.  When I ask what that means, there’s often an uncertain and delayed response. It reminds me of the early SharePoint portal development days.  I recall a developer telling me businesses would approach him for a portal but many didn’t know what they wanted it to do.  All they knew was they wanted a competitive edge and they didn’t want to get left behind.

Moving to the cloud is rather like that today. I hear people getting bogged down in the semantics of Public Vs Private Vs Hybrid clouds while there is often a lack of discussion about the business strategy such as what they are hoping to achieve. So, if you’re not sure either, consider getting advice and guidance before jumping in.

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

  • What functionality do you need?
  • Do you need scalability for growth or wholesale business changes
  • Do you have compliance requirements?
  • What is your budget?
  • What’s out there already:
    • Are there applications or suites you can subscribe to that already deliver this such as Salesforce, Xero, 365 or Autotask Workplace?
    • Do you need to build systems in AWS or Azure to run your applications?
    • Do you need both?

Choosing a service provider:

  • Are they business focused.  Too tech focused is a red flag but also beware of the complete absence of tech too as that may be a sign of marketing fluff over substance.
  • Security.  This is a tough one as most providers are light on for information.  If they show insufficient transparency, look for other options because ultimately, you’re still responsible for any breaches!
  • Data center locations.
    • Do you need local data center for performance?
    • Additonal Interstate data centers for redundancy?
    • Are you allowed to store data overseas?
  • Solid T&C’s and contracts. Just because it’s in the cloud doesn’t mean you’ve outsourced responsibility.
    • Many cloud services do not provide sufficient backup by default.
    • Make sure you own your data.
    • Can you change providers easily?  Often its difficult.
  • Does service & support meet your requirements?  Some smaller vendors still don’t offer phone support.
  • Clear definition of costs.  This can be very difficult as many offerings are based on usage while many businesses don’t yet understand what they need or even what they are currently using.  Even comparing costs between vendors can be difficult with complicated and nonlinear pricing models.  ROI calculations can be very difficult.

Don’t forget about the real world practicalities.

  • Is your Internet service good enough.  There’s no point putting anything in the cloud if it ends up unusably slow or unreliable
  • Desktop & User Management used to be performed by your servers.  You seriously need to consider building this into your cloud solution too
  • Data retention. You outsourced responsibility to maintain systems but if your data keeps growing, so do your monthly cloud costs.
  • Is your data backed up and kept for long enough?
  • Who’s managing all this for you?
  • Is it financially viable?  Cloud doesn’t mean cheaper.

If any of the above has created more questions than answers…welcome to the club.  I truly believe our expectations of technology have changed more than the actual technology in the past 10-15 years.