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Have you ever felt like you’ve wasted money on technology that you thought would change your world?
The right tech can be truly transformative. You can grow your business more quickly, help employees be more productive and your systems run more smoothly. That allows you to focus on strategy and to stop sweating the small stuff.
But the wrong choices can be more trouble than they’re worth. That leaves you to foot the bill for a solution that solves nothing or, worse, creates problems of its own.
Here’s our best advice for making the right tech choices in your business.
If you’re thinking about change and want to make the right tech decisions for your business, we’re here to support you all the way. Just get in touch.
Teams is more popular than email?
Microsoft Teams has become more popular than email for most businesses that use it.
Employees interact with Teams 1500 times a month on average, spending more time in Teams Chats than they do in their email.
A report by software giant Adobe found that two thirds of Chief Information Officers plan to digitize their workplace and introduce software that automates admin tasks.
The idea is to boost productivity, freeing up employees’ time for more creative and vital jobs. It can also work to boost morale, increase engagement, and keep everyone more organized.
Another benefit of digitization is improved data analytics and insight. And of course, improved revenue opportunities.
“The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first.”
—Sergey Brin, co-founder, Google
Whose tech knowledge is the best this month?
The answers are below.
Massive Teams meetings are about to get easier.
If your lobby policy in a Teams meeting is ‘Invited Users Only‘ (the most secure thing to do), Teams will only recognize the first 1000 people on that list and let them through.
Not a problem for most meetings, sure, but there are occasions where this can be restrictive.
Microsoft has recognized the issue and has upped that limit to… 10,000! Hats off to you if you can hit that limit.
Microsoft Presenter+ remote control
If you use Microsoft Teams for meetings and presentations (and who doesn’t?) you might be interested in this neat little gadget.
The Microsoft Presenter+ wireless remote control has Teams-enabled technology, but it works with other apps too. It helps to make presentations more engaging, mute participants and switch between controls more easily.
See yourtechinfo.com/teamspresenter
Q: Should I be monitoring my remote employees?
A: If you want to maintain a culture of trust in your business, probably not. But you will want to understand their productivity. There are a number of apps that can help with this. Get in touch for recommendations.
Q: Where should I focus my IT spend?
A: Security is key but, beyond that, more and more businesses are looking at cloud solutions to help in all areas of the business. It’s an in-depth subject, so you should take expert advice before making big decisions.
Q: Should I allow my employees to install apps on work-issued phones?
A: Yes – and they’ll need some apps to do their job. However, you should make sure they install only what’s needed. And make sure they’re genuine downloads from the main app stores – there are a lot of malicious apps in the wild!
We talk a lot about strong passwords. It’s kind of our job. But they’re really important if you want to protect your online accounts and keep your data safe.
So why are we hearing that ‘123456’ is still the most common password? Researchers found it used more than 100,000 times in a recent study.
‘Admin’ is another popular choice, found 17,000 times, followed by the highly creative ‘root’ and ‘guest’. Often these are pre-set default passwords which you’re supposed to change when you first log in – but too many people don’t bother.
Names – personal names, celebrities, even football and hockey teams – are also common, as are profanities. One swearword cropped up 300,000 times in the study (we’ll let you guess which word it was).
But popular choices make for weak passwords. A brute force attack involves throwing thousands of passwords at a system. So if you’re using any of these examples, it wouldn’t take long for an attacker to gain access to your account.
A good solution is to use a password manager. This will create long, strong, random passwords that are impossible to guess. It also stores them securely and auto fills them, saving you time.
An even safer solution is Passkeys. These could take over from passwords entirely – Apple and Microsoft are already rolling them out across their apps and accounts. Passkeys consist of two ‘keys’: One on your device and one within the application. When they connect and recognize each other as the right fit, you gain access to your account… all without clicking a button.
The best part is that you never have to remember a password. It’s all done within your device and the application, so it’s unlikely that a cyber criminal will ever be able to get their hands on your login credentials. And there are 123456 reasons why that’s a good thing.
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