Category: IT How To

myGov Outage Upsets Tax Return System Causing Mayhem

If you’ve experienced difficulties with the Australian Government’s myGov website, you aren’t alone. The myGov portal — the online system that Australians use to access their employer payment summaries for tax purposes and to access Medicare and Centrelink services — was down on Friday morning, July 12th. Later, a tweet went out announcing services had been restored, but there might be further issues logging in as the system booted back up.

However, while Tax Office service through myGov were affected, the ATO stated that tax returns were still being processed and paid as usual. ABC News reported that the issue with myGov was “a technical issue with a communications switch,” unrelated to the Telstra outage. A spokeswoman for the ATO said that they were working to restore services as rapidly as possible and the shutdown would not have any impact on people who had already lodged their tax returns. In fact, the ATO had already processed more than one million tax returns with a value of $882 million paid into accounts that morning. In addition, 110,000 tax refunds worth $292 million would be paid to recipients that same afternoon amounting to a total of 500,000 refunds worth $1.2 billion into people’s bank accounts.

Another spokesman for the Minister for Government Services, Stuart Robert, also issued a statement that the system was down, causing problems with access and speed with myGov. Apologies were also issued.

Extended Reporting Deadline for Welfare Payments

The shutdown also caused problems for people who needed to report for welfare payments. One recipient stated the fear that all recipients might have. He was worried that he would be penalised for not reporting his job search efforts on time due to the myGov outage, causing a docked payment. This man, a 55-year-old living on the central coast of NSW, had been searching for a new job since January, but currently was relying on Newstart. When he called his employment services provider, they told him they didn’t control myGov, so he was out of luck. After that, he was worried that Centrelink would impose a penalty because he couldn’t log in. That assumption turned out to be false according to a statement from a Department of Human Services spokeswoman. She further related that “all services are now available, however a small amount of people may still experience intermittent issues logging in as we return to full capacity.”

An investigation is already underway to determine the cause of the shutdown, but it wasn’t due to a cyber attack. She also confirmed that all regular payments were dispersed overnight, and apologised for any inconvenience the outage caused for users. The deadline for reporting employment income was extended until 7:30 pm AEST, and it was suggested that only people with urgent business use the site until it was fully restored.

One user, Jeffrey, who lives on the south coast of NSW, complained that his pension payment didn’t appear in his bank account as stated. It normally appears every second Friday morning according to ABC News. He tried to call Centrelink, but wasn’t able to connect. He was worried about being late on his rent payment.

Telstra Apologises for Expensive Retail Outage

Telstra offered an apology to customers after a national outage Thursday, July 11, in the afternoon which was caused by an unusually large volume of traffic across the network in New South Wales.

Telstra has apologised to its customers following a national outage on Thursday afternoon, saying it was caused by “an unusually large volume of traffic across the network” in NSW. The outage took place from about 2:30 pm through late evening, and shut down electronic payments at several retailers including Caltex and Woolworths, and some banking services. In an interview with ABC News, Dominique Lamb from the National Retail Association said,

“Given both the time of day and the businesses affected, the Telstra outage certainly caused a large degree of inconvenience for both shoppers and retailers yesterday. As some shoppers would have paid with cash instead or simply delayed the purchase of essential items, such as groceries, it is still a little difficult to ascertain the exact cost to retail sales at this early stage. The amount in lost sales could be as high as $100 million for the day, however, hopefully much of it will be recouped by customers simply doing shopping today and tomorrow rather than yesterday.”

Telstra said it would consider compensating businesses, and that their account executives are discussing the impact on revenues with their customers. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) urged customers to contact Telstra first, but contact the TIO if their issues were unresolved.

Cyber Attacks Ruled Out by Telstra

The ATO and Telstra have faced several outages and technical issues disrupting service to customers in recent years. Twitter also had a worldwide shutdown on Thursday, July 11, which affected their stock price. It’s unknown whether the Twitter outage was caused by Telstra. Telstra did rule out a cyber attack as a cause of their outage. It did affect Telstra’s IP services including EFTPOS, ATM and other payment platforms.

One Problem with Going Cashless

Telstra’s outage did bring to light potential issues for Australians relying on a cashless society. During the shutdown, consumers couldn’t make electronic purchases, and also couldn’t withdraw cash from ATMs.

Telstra’s outage on Thursday highlighted potential problems of Australians increasingly relying on a cashless world. In November 2018, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe stated that cash will become a niche payment sooner than people may think. The RBA reported that Australians make an average of 500 electronic payments per year. There has been a decline in cash use, however, the value of banknotes on issue has increased relative to the size of the economy. In November 2016, a survey of consumer payments based on a number of 1500 people found that although the share of payments made in cash continued to fall, case was still used for more than 1/3 of consumer payments. Cash was primarily used in transactions less than $10, and older people were more likely to hold more cash.

Nearly every company must now rely on technology on a daily basis. For most companies, the role of technology will only grow in the future, making it even more important for all companies to have the tech support they need at all times. Depending on the situation, companies may hire employees to handle IT in-house, or they may outsource IT to a third-party provider.

The information below will help you determine whether it is time for your business to consider IT outsourcing.

Benefits of Outsourcing IT

Before you can decide whether outsourcing is right for you, you must first understand the reasons you might choose this path. Below are some of the potential benefits of outsourcing IT:

• Fewer headaches – When you outsource IT, you no longer have to worry about maintenance, upgrades, repairs or any other technological problems.
• Fewer expenses – Outsourcing IT is cost-effective, as you won’t have to pay for full-time employees to handle IT.
• Scalability – Outsourced IT services can be scaled up or down to meet your needs as your company evolves.
• No interruptions – When IT is outsourced, you won’t need to deal with downtime or other workflow interruptions related to IT issues.
• Better use of in-house resources – Many businesses delegate IT responsibilities to existing employees when they can’t afford to hire full time IT personnel. With outsourcing, you will no longer need to split your employees’ focus in this way.

Downsides of Outsourcing

Should You Outsource?

Microsoft Defender ATP Security for Macs

Microsoft Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) is a program that detects ongoing attacks on corporate networks, blocks any that are malicious, and then provides response recommendations to improve security. Microsoft has made good on a pledge made in March 2019 by announcing that its sophisticated endpoint security service is available for Mac users.

Microsoft Defender ATP for Mac has been moved to what the company calls “general availability” as of June 28 according to Helen Allas, the principal program manager for the enterprise security team. In a July 8 post to a company blog, Allas reported that “with Microsoft Defender ATP for Mac general availability, all Microsoft Defender ATP customers now have an opportunity to start benefiting from integrated experiences across their Windows and macOS clients in Microsoft Defender Security Center.” The core components of Microsoft Defender ATP, which includes the latest “Threat & Vulnerability Management,” serve Macs as well as PCs.

The Microsoft Defender ATP for Mac supports the three latest released versions of macOS: Mojave, High Sierra, and Sierra. Customers can use Microsoft Intune and Jamf to deploy and manage Microsoft Defender ATP for Mac. Just like with Microsoft Office applications on macOS, Microsoft Auto Update is used to manage Microsoft Defender ATP for Mac updates.

There’s still more implementation to come

With this announcement came the news that this update doesn’t allow for complete integration of Microsoft Defender ATP for Macs quite yet. There are also some quirks that haven’t been ironed out for Mac users. In the “Known Issues” section of the online documentation, Microsoft has written “full Microsoft Defender ATP integration is not available yet.” And there is no date listed for when the entire program will be available for integration for Mac users.

Defense against malicious attacks

Microsoft Defender ATP is a very useful tool as it detects ongoing cyberattacks on corporate networks, blocks whatever it recognises as malicious, and then follows up to investigate and discover information about the attack and/or security breach, after which it provides response recommendations and cyberattack remediation.

How to add Microsoft Defender ATP

This defense service is a component within the highest-level Windows ten licenses, including those provided by a subscription service such as Windows 10 Enterprise E5 or Microsoft 365 E5. In fact, Microsoft claims that ATP is the differentiator between these high-level services and lower-tier bundles. You can also add ATP as an add-on service to Microsoft 365 E3 for an extra $12 per month.

If you want to add Macs to the Windows PCs already reporting and covered by Microsoft Defender ATP, users are required to license Microsoft 365 E5, Windows 10 Enterprise E5 or Windows 10 Education E5 (Microsoft 365 E5 includes Windows 10 Enterprise E5). Any Macs using Defender ATP are required to be running one of three of the newest edictions of macOS – 2018 Mojave, 2017 High Sierra, or 2016 Sierra. Once September’s release of 2019 Catalina, it’s likely that Microsoft will drop the oldest, 2016 Sierra, because Apple will no longer support that OS with regular security updates.

You can find instructions from Microsoft published on how to deploy Microsoft Defender ATP to Macs. On those instructions, users are warned that they will need “beginner-level experience in macOS and BASH scripting” as well as admin privileges to the device or devices in case there are issues and you need to use a fallback of manual deployment to install. Admins can deploy the security service to Macs using any of these platforms: Microsooft Intune, JAMF, or other MDM (mobile device management) platforms.

Instructions on how to configure Defender ATP for Mac are posted here.

Customers can register for a free trial of Defender ATP online.

What Are the Top Tips for Choosing the Best IT Company?

Website outages, cybersecurity attacks, and any number of other IT incidents can cost your company hundreds or even thousands of dollars — every minute. For this reason alone, you need an outsourced IT company who is competent and highly qualified to handle your IT needs.

But how do you choose the best IT company?

Naturally, the IT needs of each individual business will vary. A medical practice will need IT assistance that specializes in privacy as well as cybersecurity because they’ll have a tremendous amount of sensitive data in their systems. On the other hand, your industry may require less focus on privacy and more focus on the particular type of software that you use.

Finding an IT company who specializes in your industry is the first step to locating optimal IT support.

Here are some other tips to keep in mind when choosing an IT support company for your business.

1. Look for experience.

As is always the case when you contract out services, you need to look for experience. It may be tempting to work with a brand-new, up and coming IT company in your area, but something as important as IT support warrants hiring a company who’s been in the business for at least a few years.

To establish that the IT companies you are considering have enough experience to get the job done right, ask to speak with their current or past clients. Also, ask for the list of credentials that their support staff possesses. These are the individuals you’ll be working with regularly, and you want to look for certifications and schooling in IT-related fields.

Lastly, make sure the experience that these companies have is related to your industry, specifically. We’ve already touched on this a bit, but it’s important to reiterate that it’s better to find an IT company who specializes in your industry than to find night one who claims they can “do it all.” Many IT companies specialize in healthcare IT, transport IT, or other specific industries, which means they know and understand these industries inside and out. That wants you want.

2. Choose a local company.

Some IT companies will claim they can take on your business from across the state or the nation. While this is possible, it’s unlikely you’ll get the level of quality service you actually deserve. It’s much better to go with a local IT company who you can work with directly.

In many situations, you’ll actually need IT support staff from your MSP (managed service provider) to come to your business for installations, troubleshooting, or network setups. This shouldn’t have to be a huge production. Having a local IT company available for quick service calls is a huge advantage.

3. Look for forward-thinking companies.

Not only do you want your IT company to focus on maintaining your current network and system structure, but you also want them to propel your business forward. Whether fast or slow, growing should be a primary concern for any business.

Some IT companies are more capable at scaling their services than others. Essentially, you want to find a company who will propel your business forward with their own IT ideas. They also need to have the employee-power and IT resources to scale your business up with ease and efficiency. As you expand, you don’t want to have to switch IT companies.

4. Make sure you can choose your level of service.

Again, needs vary where IT is concerned. You certainly do not want to pay for services you don’t need and won’t use. For this reason, look for an IT company who offers a range of service levels.

Most IT companies offer at least two or three levels of service. For example, they may offer an entry-level fee for simply monitoring your systems and alerting you as soon as possible if there’s a breach. If you require network setups, software installations, and other management services, you‘ll naturally want a higher level of service. Having options is the main concern here.

No matter what IT company you choose, it’s important to take your time, and do your research. Your IT company will be one of your business’s most important assets. Hire well, and you’ll reap the benefits of easier daily operations, higher returns on investment, and ultimately, more business opportunities.

Microsoft Office 365 and Your Business: Boost Productivity with the Right Tech Tools

The workplace is becoming more and more digital every day. New tech tools are developed regularly, and most have the same goal—to make your life easier. While some new developments end up making life harder because they are hard to learn, cumbersome, or have glitches or bugs, most are specifically designed to be easy to understand and use. Getting things done faster and more efficiently is a huge driver for technology generally, but that is especially true today.

Defining the Modern Digital Workplace

The “Modern Digital Workplace” is a phrase used today that describes utilizing the technology that is most useful for your team. It helps your team by:

• Making collaboration easier
• Training and educating faster and more efficiently
• Compiling documents and information in an easy-to-use and access way
• Automating processes, to the extent possible, in a way that make sense for your industry and your team
• Improving digital processes not only internally, but also with partners, suppliers, and other third parties

Technology, when used properly, can make the entire workplace run in a much smoother, more efficient way. New tools allow your team to meet the needs of customers, and the business as a whole, better. When goals are easier to accomplish, productivity gets a huge boost.

The Obvious Connection: Technology and Productivity

In general, the new digital workplace focuses on improving three key areas of a company. These include the following:

• Employee Collaboration. When employees can team up and get work done easier, it makes projects faster and more efficient. Sometimes talking to one another is the best way to come up with new ideas and simply ensure that everyone is getting their job done effectively and promptly. Making sure that information and the ability to connect with one another is all on one platform is one of the best ways to encourage and foster this type of collaboration.
• Content Collaboration. Many teams work on the same content at similar times. Being able to share documents, files, and even external information at the same time can be a huge time saver within a company.
• Business Application. Administrative processes, such as workflow, forms, and rules, can often be automated in a way that cuts down significantly on processing time and time spent requesting or obtaining status updates. Even something as simple as creating digital versions of forms and allowing employees or third parties to input the information themselves can be a huge time saver in many industries.

Transparency regarding work product and processes is one of the most effective ways to ensure that your team is getting their work done and creating a final product that is the best version that you can provide.

Certain technologies often focus on a different area of these three overarching ideas. Some attempt to address all of them, while others target just one or two sections of particular concern. When all three can be addressed, you have a powerful system that encourages accountability, efficiency, and, in turn, productivity.

Office 365’s Role in the Modern Digital Workplace

Office 365 has been created with the Modern Digital Workplace in mind. It is specifically designed to address these three major concerns in an easy-to-use way.

While Office is commonly associated with their most popular programs, like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, they have a whole host of programs that can significantly boost your team’s productivity because they make collaboration and transparency ridiculously easy.

Outlook

Microsoft’s email program, Outlook, has been a staple for many businesses for years. Outlook is more than just email, however. Users can use the calendar to schedule meetings and create task lists. They can also create contact lists and share documents through OneDrive. Outlook’s key focus is employee collaboration.

Microsoft Teams

This relatively new feature allows employees and third parties to chat, share documents, work on documents at the same time, schedule meetings, have audio and visual video calls, create notes, and more. It is also integrated with several very popular apps and services, including OneDrive, SharePoint, Yammer, Dynamics 365, and Skype.

Delve

Microsoft Delve shows what your team is working on, popular documents, and provides insightful information to workers who might be interested in them. Employees develop profiles, and they can find and organize information based on interests. It also allows workers to search for documents that are connected through SharePoint and OneDrive.

Yammer

Yammer is similar to a social networking site, but it is limited to your employees and other workers. It is designed to encourage communication throughout your organization. Its focus is on ensuring that information is accessible and shared at virtually every level.

Microsoft Planner

This tool allows your team to create new plans, assign tasks, share files, and organize projects. You can easily see what people are working on and get updates on progress for various tasks. This type of open communication makes assigning projects and getting status updates easy and more efficient.

SharePoint and OneDrive

OneDrive is a straight-forward means to share files, both internally and externally. SharePoint uses sites and files, team news, lists, libraries, and more to encourage collaboration on documents and files. Both are based on sharing information in the cloud.

Microsoft Flow

This tool is focused on making internal processes easier and more efficient. It helps automate and exchange data. It has built-in alerts and notifications to help address organizational processes like approvals, multi-stage processes, and more.

Using Office 365 to Help Your Business

Every company is different. Office 365 has enough unique tools focused on making your company better that you are bound to find something that fits well for your needs. Encouraging collaboration and automated processing can lead to huge productivity boosts for your business.

Broadband internet service isn’t providing the speeds advertised. Modems provided by Australian internet retailers aren’t capable of delivering 100 Mbps download speeds over the average fibre-to-the-node connection, according to the consumer watchdog’s own performance testing. Other problems include poor Wi-Fi performance stopping Australians from getting the NBN promised speeds. In fact, testing of 43 modems/routers from eleven different hardware manufacturers and ten separate internet providers shows that none could achieve the 100/40 Mbps broadband speeds over a 450-meter copper run (the average length of copper in an NBN FTTN connection.

What are the Actual Broadband Speeds?

Independent modem/router performance testing report, commissioned by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, noted that at the distance from the node, download speeds varied from 60 to 94 Mbps and upload speeds from 10 to 29 Mbps.

What is Causing the Broadband Speed Issues?

The problem is caused by the FTTN NBN connections that rely on more than 400 metres of copper as is the case for a third of them. However, the report found that another significant drop of speed occurs at the 450-metre mark. Modems vary on how well they can compensate for a poor copper connection. Once the 1050-metre mark is reached, with additional line noise added to simulate poor-quality copper line and other electrical interference combined with less-than-satisfactory installation work, download speeds vary between 10 and 20 Mbps, and uploads are really poor at 6 to 9 Mbps.

Ultimately, the quality of the copper connection and variable modem performance means that speeds are falling far short of the 50/20 Mbps speeds which NBN is advertising as standard.

What Other Tests Were Run?

Tests were also run on the Wi-Fi performance specifically for providing internet access to wireless devices in and around a home. Performance varied significantly when Wi-Fi was tested on a range of devices. Tests were run on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands over short and longer distances, as well as how interference and obstructions changed the signal. The results showed that even if the more expensive WiFi-enabled modems are used, users don’t necessarily receive greater speeds and range.

Additionally, while 5 GHz offers faster speeds than the 2.4 GHz band, 5 GHz performance is more affected by distance and obstacles (like walls). Even with this issue, the report found that most 5 GHz Wi-Fi devices tested provided better performance through obstacles, and at a farther distance when compared with their 2.4 GHz equivalents.

How Did Devices Perform at the 2.4 GHz Band?

The performance of all devices when operating on the 2.4 GHZ band had wide variations. While some devices could barely reach the 50 Mbps mark, others achieved close to 160 Mbps when transferring files from a network storage drive.

This large performance gap was most likely due to issues with compatibility between a user’s modem/router and their Wi-Fi devices. This was especially true with older computers, phones and laptops. However, the end result is that some Australians won’t be able to achieve optimal performance of their FTTN NBN service.

What Were the Conclusions of the Report?

Consumers will get better Wi-Fi performance as well as better NBN performance by selecting a device using the 802.11ac standard (or next-generation 802.11ax, also named Wi-Fi 6) when operating in the 5 GHz band.

This modem/router performance testing report may be behind a push by the ACMA to require Australian internet providers and modem manufacturers to declare the real-world modem/router performance rates, since they are obligated to report the real-world performance of NBN connections to individual homes. According to the report, “the outcomes of the study have informed the preparation of practical consumer information and guidance to assist consumers in making well-formed decisions in purchasing, setting up and using Wi-Fi modems.

Habits You Want From Your Technology Partner

When you are running a business, you want your technology to integrate well with the other tech you use in your business and with your overall IT platform. When you run into situations where your tech fails to integrate well, it can cause serious problems—leading to lost productivity, lost data, and general inefficiency that is not desirable for any business.

Choosing technology partners requires looking carefully at how those partners play with others. You want to know that your tech will integrate and operate well, which means you want a tech partner that is interested in ensuring cross-compatibility and integration. Many tech partners will be interested in such cooperation, but not all will. It is important to know what to look for in such a partner to ensure that you team up with a business that you can rely on.

Tech Partner Habits—Must-Haves from a Tech Partner

1. Interest in improving the overall experience, not just the bottom line

There are plenty of tech partnerships that develop to increase profits. After all, money drives business and it only makes sense for companies to seek arrangements that will improve their profitability. But creating the best customer experience requires more than just a focus on profitability—it also requires a real and sustained interest in ongoing improvement, which necessitates cross-pollination.

You want a partner who wants to ensure that everything works and strives to avoid tech silos that inhibit customers and companies alike. However, you also want a partner who will offer ideas for improvement and accept constructive feedback for their own improvement. The sharing of knowledge and insight and interest in such sharing makes a great tech partner.

2. Willingness to be part of a team

It may seem like asking too much for a tech partner to treat your business and the other tech vendors you work with as a team—but the fact is, you need a team player to achieve your goals. Sure, it can take some serious self-reflection on the part of one business to decide to team up with another business and actively engage in such teamwork, especially if there is a fear of missing out on extra earnings. But the long-term benefit of teamwork will yield future rewards that are otherwise unachievable. The tech partner that is willing to forgo a little extra profit today for benefits for the entire team, later on, is one worth keeping.

3. Interest in a long-term partnership

Many of the best results are only achievable through long-term planning and implementation. Some tech partners may see the option of a partnership as more of a short-term advantage that is not worth maintaining for the long-term. These potential tech partners fail to realize that whatever short-term benefits they can get now will pale in comparison to the benefits they could realize through long-term engagement and partnership. Of course, the challenge of long-term relationships is that they typically require some sacrifice on the front-end. Tech partners that are wise enough to see the value in such early sacrifice are more likely to benefit your business in the future.

4. Desire to contribute to the partnership

One of the best ways to facilitate a successful partnership in technology is to give as much access to your technology base as possible. There are many reasons for this need. For example, by giving as much open access to their technology base and IT stack as they can—within reason—a tech partner can make it much easier and faster to develop integration between their tech and the tech of other partners. The harder partners have to push to gain access to the information they need, the longer it will take to achieve true integration. It is possible that with enough pushback on access, a partner could just give up on the idea of achieving integration and go somewhere else.

5. Seek regular and open communication

The need for communication in business is significant when partnering with tech vendors and service providers. You want a company that will keep you up to date about everything that is going on—at least all the things that are relevant to you and your business—and you want a company that will take your need to communicate seriously. When you want to communicate, your partner should be available or make themselves available at a reasonable time. You also need to know what your partner wants and expects out of the business relationship, just as your partner should know what you want and need out of the partnership.

Just about nothing is more frustrating when using a smartphone than connecting to a sluggish or broken Wi-Fi network. In most places, mobile data is so effective and speedy these days that we just can’t accept a Wi-Fi network performing worse than our mobile networks can.

If you’re dealing with obnoxiously slow speeds on your mobile phone, here are some tips to try.

1. Isolate the Problem

Your first step is to isolate the problem. First, toggle off Wi-Fi altogether. Does your phone respond quickly with Wi-Fi turned off? If so, you’ve determined that Wi-Fi is the problem. You can skip to step 2.

If your phone is still sluggish with Wi-Fi turned off, it’s time to check whether the problem is your connection or the device itself. Use a speed tester, like the app from speedtest.net, to see how fast or slow your cellular connection is. If you get a bad result, you’re likely in a bad coverage area. If you get a good result, though, then your phone’s sluggishness isn’t related to your internet speed. Chances are there is something wrong with the device itself, or perhaps it’s just too old and needs to be replaced.

2. Check Your Router Location

Next, check your router location. Wireless routers have range limits, too. If you’re far away from your router or if there are thick walls or furniture between you and your router, your speed will be diminished. Try operating right next to the router and see if your speeds improve.

The best location for your wireless router is the center of your home or office, away from any walls or furniture. Of course, this is rarely practical. Get creative and find an inventive way to place your router in a good location.

3. Check Router Strength

All routers have limits, and some have a stronger broadcast strength than others. If improving your router’s location doesn’t do enough, you may need to upgrade to a model with a greater range.

4. Watch Out for Noise and Competing Networks

Certain electronic devices create noise that can weaken your Wi-Fi network’s performance. Anything that emits wireless signals or even electromagnetic radiation can interfere. Cordless landline phones, walkie-talkies, and even microwaves can interfere. Position your router away from devices like these.

You also want to watch out for competing networks. The more wireless networks are competing for the same spectrum space, the worse the performance. In a high-density situation like an apartment complex, you may encounter this kind of network crowding. Your wireless router has the ability to change which portion of the wireless spectrum it uses. Review the documentation that came with your router to learn how to do this. You may want to download a Wi-Fi analyzer app to help determine the best spectrum space for you.

5. Consider Network Congestion

Another reason for slow Wi-Fi is network congestion. Your home or business internet bandwidth has its limits. So does public Wi-Fi.

On a lower speed home network, consider who else is using your connection and what they are doing with it. Gaming and streaming can eat up a lot of bandwidth. Perhaps your Wi-Fi is slow because others are using up all your bandwidth. The same principle is in play with public Wi-Fi networks.

If you’ve tried all these steps and still aren’t getting the performance you need, give us a call. We can help you solve your connection issues!

Microsoft Office products have become ubiquitous throughout a range of industries, and there are more choices than ever before to find the suite of professional office software tools you need to run your business effectively.

While you can still find Office products available for a single licensing fee (Office 2019, for example), most businesses are turning to Office 365 as a subscription software solution that offers a range of powerful tools, including cloud storage and seamless sharing integration across devices.

But if you’re ready to move forward with a subscription-based Office 365 solution, you’ve still got to narrow it down for the right product. Will your business benefit from the Business or Enterprise option? If you choose Enterprise, which level makes the most sense for your organization? Read on for a breakdown on how to choose the best Office 365 product for your team [OPTIONAL CTA] and feel free to reach out to us at any time for support or guidance in making the transition to Office 365.

Choosing Between Office 2019 and Office 365

The key distinction between Office 2019 and Office 365 is connectivity. Office 2019 is different in the way you purchase and use it, but more importantly, it does not offer any of the cloud-connected features of Office 365. For businesses wishing to utilize the power of cloud storage as well as greater choice in terms of features and connectivity, the subscription-based Office 365 is the way to go.

Business vs. Enterprise

If you operate a small business, you can find several Office 365 Business options that provide licenses at a set rate per user for up to 300 users. Select either basic plans that focus on cloud storage solutions to more advanced options that also include desktop access to products like Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as cloud collaboration system, SharePoint. Opting for Office 365 Business is a good move if you’re keeping an eye on your budget, but still want to access many of the staple features that Office has developed over several decades. To take full advantage of the cloud tools, larger businesses will want to opt for Office 365 Enterprise options, which offer unlimited data storage, including archive and mail storage. Enterprise plans also allow for greater interaction and collaboration across platforms like SharePoint, which is another bonus for larger companies with employees in multiple sites.

Which Enterprise Level is Right for Your Business?

If you run a larger business, or have a small business with high data storage needs, then choosing Office 365 Enterprise is probably the right choice. Microsoft currently offers 3 levels of service: E1, E3 and E5.

The first level, E1, offers basic office tools, including Word, Excel, and SharePoint, at a reasonable monthly rate. E3 includes these tools as well as additional connectivity–and the protection to go with it. Data loss prevention and encryption are among several tools that Office 365 customers at the E3 level will be able to take advantage of. To consolidate your entire suite of digital solutions into one overarching tool, the E5 level of Office 365 Enterprise includes advanced protection for your company’s data, plus communication tools and video conferencing platform options to best accommodate larger business and keep them in compliance.

As you find the right next move for your organization, feel free to reach out to {company} today to assess your needs and the potential solutions that today’s Office products can provide.

Chances are, you already use cloud computing in your personal life with applications such as Facebook, Gmail, and Dropbox. But what about your business?

According to a recent study, 31% of companies still don’t use cloud computing to organize and operate their business. Although some of these companies stated they plan to implement cloud computing at some point in the future, this still leaves a large margin of businesses who are, dare we say, living in the dark ages of information technology.

Numerous misconceptions about cloud computing are usually to blame for this. Ahead, we’ll dismantle these concerns by detailing the most potent benefits of using cloud computing in your business or organization.

Top Benefits of Cloud Computing

1. Access From Anywhere

One of the most useful benefits of the cloud is the ability to access your company’s data, software, applications, and more from anywhere in the world. As long as you have an Internet connection, you’ll be able to access the cloud.

For certain businesses, this provides the ability to hire remote workers. Employees, likewise, generally enjoy the ability to work from home or remotely at their leisure. On business trips, huge amounts of equipment aren’t necessary when all necessary data and services can be accessed via any WiFi connection.

2. Always-Up-to-Date Software

Many programs that your business may require will need occasional (or seemingly daily) software updates to continue to run properly. Instead of having to allow and wait for these updates every time you log on to your computer or an individual program, cloud-based software automatically updates and refreshes (unless you tell it not to).

For employees and your entire business, this means valuable time saved. Furthermore, as a result, fewer IT resources and in-house specialists are required to oversee updates and server maintenance.

3. Loss Prevention & Reliable Backup Protection

With cloud-based storage and computing, much less data will be lost from careless errors, computer glitches, or malicious software (malware). Furthermore, in the event of an emergency, cloud-based storage allows for immediate backups to be procured and implemented.

Formerly, backing up entire collections of data and programs would take an immense amount of time and take up valuable space. As a result, many companies did not perform routine data backups and were thusly in big trouble when problems would inevitably arrive.

4. Added Security

Security is a major issue when it comes to cloud-based storage and cloud computing as many company heads and managers falsely believe that the cloud is more susceptible to security problems than in-house data storage on servers.

Actually, cloud security is extremely effective and robust. That’s because maintaining adequate security is one of the most important responsibilities that a cloud host has. Likely no one is more efficient at security than the leading cloud hosts.

Furthermore, many security issues actually arise from internal theft. In these situations, off-site data storage is much more effective than on-site server storage.

5. Saved IT Costs

While it is true that switching from in-house data storage to a cloud-based data storage system does come with an initial price tag, the long-term cost benefits of this switch will surely be in your favor. In fact, cloud computing comes with a huge return on investment (ROI) across the board.

For example, starting any new project, backing up your data, and implementing new services and programs can all be completed much more easily with the cloud. Of course, in this way, easier means cheaper.

Instead of having to install important programs and applications on all of your employees’ computers, for instance, the cloud enables you to purchase one cloud subscription for everyone. Within reason, no matter the device, no matter the location, your employees (or clients, customers, etc.) will always be able to access the services of that program as well as up-to-date data.

Furthermore, you only have to pay for the cloud storage you actually need. If you’ll simply be backing up files and keeping inventory information on the cloud, for example, you won’t need to pay for the larger amount of space that might be required to store massive amounts of sensitive data. The price tag of your cloud services will always be catered to your unique needs.

If your company or organization hasn’t made the switch from in-house servers to the cloud yet, consider it a must for your 2019 to-do list. As the business world moves further and further toward complete cloud and Internet reliance, your business will certainly go the way of the dinosaur if you’re not on board.