Ulistic Projects Blog

It wasn’t long ago; most businesses believed outsourcing their IT was unnecessary. They could easily hire an individual, with some basic technical knowledge, to cover the day-to-day operations in-house. However, those chores have changed. With increased security threats, stiffer government regulations, ongoing technology training for employees, and the push towards augmented intelligence and machine learning, successful businesses started shifting away from that old model.

What are the Four Tech Chores You Can Delegate For Outsourcing?

Today IT outsourcing is no longer a chore, but rather an expected path most businesses automatically choose. With the recent advancements in information technology, over the past few years, startup business owners have avoided old-school IT chores and headaches by delegating the IT outsourcing. Their decision has reduced startup, labor and equipment costs.

Below we’ve listed the technologies you can easily delegate to an outsourced IT service provider, that will reduce business expenses, cut unnecessary labor costs, protect your information, and prevent unauthorized access to intruders.

1. Infrastructure

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) — Let’s begin with outsourcing your equipment. You have the hardware, a network system, and servers. These are your physical assets on your premises. Were these assets ever inventoried? If any of your equipment went down, what’s the next step? Were there policies or SOPs created regarding the assets? How old are any of the assets?

These kinds of questions and chores you avoid when you shift over to outsourcing your infrastructure. But, without an infrastructure provider monitoring your IaaS, your company is exposed to unexpected downtime costs, plus the added labor costs with your in-house technician trying to determine the issue.

When you start constructing and maintaining your infrastructure, it’s neither easy or cheap. When you delegate the outsourcing of your IaaS, this is where your IT expenses drop. Just remember, the IaaS service provider will own and use their equipment. Instead of you, they are responsible and capable of running and troubleshooting the systems. What you pay for is either a monthly subscription or per-use.

2. Cloud Hosting

Cloud Hosting – allows your staff to access business information anywhere, at any time, using company assigned equipment or an employee’s personal laptop, tablet, or cell phone. When you host your cloud system, that becomes costly, plus the security risks are higher, especially if the technology is outdated.

When you delegate outsourcing to cloud technology, the days of having to maintain in-house cloud servers are over. As for moving forward you and your staff only use the cloud. Without the need for servers, that is equipment your company doesn’t have to purchase.

If you are new to Cloud Hosting, one more thing to know is that data and a network in the Cloud are slightly different, but share the same basic principles as other environments. The next item of importance is that because the Cloud runs in data centers, that are staffed by experts in Cloud services, information stored in the Cloud is more secure than stored on servers on your premises.

3. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity – When it comes to cybersecurity, this is where it comes to complete and secure protection. But, here’s where some due diligence, on your part, takes place. There are a few things business owners may not know but need to be brought up to speed when outsourcing this crucial IT function.

1. Virus scans are not Cybersecurity
2. In-house cyber protection is limited
3. Some IT and MSP companies only offer cybersecurity as a vendor
4. Cybersecurity experts specialize in anticipating and mitigating threats

Remember IT vendors usually tell you that your data is safe, but cybersecurity experts know, IT networks get built with security, if any, as an afterthought. And they will advise you that no single company can guarantee 100% data safety and protection.

That doesn’t mean the IT vendor doesn’t have tight security measures in place, only that cybersecurity experts know the vulnerabilities, and can offer an extra layer of cyber protection, the vendor can’t, that will prevent disasters, quarantine the breach, and resolve security issues quickly.

4. Email Hosting Services

Email Hosting Services – All it takes is one accidental email reply to get your system hacked and loaded up with ransomware. Due to ongoing efforts from hackers and cybercriminals, delegating email services to get outsourced, not only reduces IT system risks but can spot the activity before it makes it to an unsuspecting employee’s inbox.

When you outsource your email chores, there are quite a few benefits an in-house technician cannot provide or combat.

• Email Migration—This is a service to simplify any correspondence. That would cover content conversion, email forwarding, and property mapping.
• Security—Your business relies heavily on email for data transmission and must remain secure. Proactive security management gets set in place to monitor any potential vulnerabilities.
• Filtering—Establishing inbound and outbound filtering criteria, eliminating spam from employee’s inboxes. Blocking sensitive emails and placed in the proper mailbox.
• Employee Training—Employees taught how to spot phishing attempts, masked Adware, identifying social engineering emails attempts, or replying with personal information.

Did you find this article informative? If you liked this one, check out our other content we think you’ll find interesting.

In late 2000, Kirk Lippold was the captain of the U.S.S. Cole, an Aegis-class guided-missile destroyer. The Cole was severely damaged by terrorists who pulled alongside in a ship disguised as a garbage barge and set off a massive explosion. The Cole had a 40’ by 60’ hole ripped in its side; 17 sailors died, and another 39 were injured. The crew, working together under the Captain’s direction, saved the ship and was able to stabilize it and get it towed to a repair facility. It is still in service.

What Are The Lessons?

In a presentation to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Captain Lippold presented some lessons from the Cole crisis. They are:

• It’s not a question of if, but when. You, as an executive, will face a crisis at some point.
• You have to lay the foundations in staff attitude and skills for dealing with a crisis.
• The first step is always to calm yourself. Everyone in the organization will be looking to you for direction and inspiration.
• Remember that there are multiple perspectives. Be open to what your staff is telling you.
• Not making a decision is not an option. Not to decide is to decide.
• Act in the now, but always ask, “What do I do next?”
• When the crisis is over, ask whether the situation just requires a reset or a whole new way of thinking.

When doing any of these things, brutal intellectual honesty is critical. Without it, you are not facing reality; you are merely crafting a fiction which will provide you with no resources when the next crisis hits.

Why Intellectual Honesty Is Critical

Part of intellectual honesty is not “buying” the organization’s vision of itself. This does not mean that real skills and dedication should not be recognized. It knows that every organization has blind spots. Facebook is a good example. So is Uber. Whatever their merits or demerits, their corporate culture led both management and employees to regard themselves as invincible.

From the other side of the coin, look at all the IT companies that had really superior products that vanished over the course of time. Consider DEC. Consider the AT&T personal computer line. If a company has excellent products but cannot market them effectively, those products will vanish from the marketplace.

It has been jokingly remarked that if AT&T’s marketing team were put in charge at KFC, the signs above the restaurants would read “Hot Dead Chicken!”

If a company has superior products but does not recognize what sets them apart from others in the market, their ads will not reflect that. At most, they will be mediocre.

Another part of intellectual honesty is recognizing just how severe a potential crisis can be. “It won’t be as bad as we think” is a first cousin to “it can’t happen here.” The intellectually honest answer is that “Yes, it can be that bad, and yes, it is going to happen here.” No organization is immune.

Captain Lippold emphasized that a leader in a crisis must be simultaneously in and out of the picture. He must be listening to subordinates, trusting them to convey what is really happening, yet at the same time recognizing that the staff is relying on him or her for leadership. He must also be thinking ahead to what is the next step. If all of that is not done, the executive in charge is deprived of accurate information and may well, by failing to think ahead, turn one big crisis into a cascade of smaller ones.

Communication Is Key

It does go without saying that for a spirit of teamwork, respect for executive authority, and professional commitment to existing, dialogue must have been frank and honest from the start. This is essential for building trust, and if trust is not present, all the authority in the world will not produce a good outcome in a crisis.

Does IT Have A Communications Problem?

One of the things to note about recent IT-related crises at Experian, Uber, Facebook, and now Google, is the tendency to not reveal problems, the issue information that minimizes them, then walk that back, and finally reveal the scope and the relevant details only after public pressure is applied.

One thing IT can learn from politics is that it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up. In every case, the PR outcome for these companies would have been much better if everything had been revealed at once. As far as intellectual honesty is concerned, IT shops that have any interaction with the public need to view their responses from the general public’s angle and honestly ask them what their various possible responses would make them look like. This exercise could be quite revealing.

The Need To Anticipate The Worst

One reason the Cole is still in service is that the officers and crew had been relentlessly drilled in damage control. They had practice exercises in dealing with massive damage to the ship. They knew how to keep it in fighting condition even after an attack. When they had an actual crisis that could have sunk the ship, their training and the foresight showed. IT executives would be well advised to take the lesson to heart.

If you are experiencing problems with your Windows 10 Pro operating system, you are not alone. Thousands of users from the US, Japan, and South Korea flooded tech message boards late this week with complaints that their legitimately purchased software was deactivating itself.

What Exactly Happened?

Starting on November 8, comments began to appear online from several users expressing frustration over the pop-up messages they received from Microsoft after booting up their computers. These messages included the error codes: 0xC004C003 or 0xC004C003, and incorrectly implied that the users were trying to run illegal copies of the Windows 10 Pro edition on their computers. Those affected by the glitch were then prompted to install the Windows 10 Home edition or to purchase a genuine copy of the Pro edition from the Microsoft store. Anyone who received a deactivation warning was still able to operate the computer using the Windows 10 Pro edition, although distracting watermarks were plastered across the screen.

Microsoft acknowledged that the company was fully aware of the DMR issue within hours of the first messages showing up online. A statement released from the company said it was still trying to determine the reason behind the deactivations to provide a fix, but at the time the exact cause was unknown. Engineers from Microsoft suspected that “some unspecified issue with the Windows Authentication servers” was the cause behind the deactivations.

On Friday, a day after Microsoft first address the deactivations, the company released an update about the bug:

“A limited number of customers experienced an activation issue that our engineers have now addressed. Affected customers will see the resolution over the next 24 hours as the solution is applied automatically. In the meantime, they can continue to use Windows 10 Pro as usual.”

As of Saturday, some users online were still reporting problems with their operating system.

Will This Affect Me?

The good news is that the deactivation problem seems to be affecting only a small portion of the total number of Windows 10 Pro edition users. Of the licenses which were affected, the vast majority of them were digitally updated from an early version of Windows. If you have not already received the warning after restarting your system, there is a good chance that your copy of the operating system is not affected by this bug. But for those who hit with the glitch, you have several options.

What Can I Do About It?

First, don’t panic and assume that you need to repurchase a new license for the Windows 10 Pro edition if you are still receiving a warning as of today. As long as you are using a genuine version of the operating system, there is no need to buy another copy, as the fix will automatically take effect. The best thing to do is just to wait. But if you are unwilling to wait, you can attempt to correct the issue on your own by running the Troubleshoot app. You can access the Troubleshoot app by going to Settings then clicking on Update & Security followed by Activation, and finally to Troubleshoot. This should correct the issue immediately.

Every year, the United States Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated with a cake-cutting ceremony and a traditional ball on November 10th. This event celebrates the establishment of the Continental Marines on November 10th, 1775.

Many Marines have become to view November 10th, the birthday of the United States Marine Corps, as their second birthday. This tradition runs very deep. Marines often wish each other “Happy Birthday” on November 10th and attend Marine Corps Birthday Balls, which are held in many cities across the globe. On this day, the Commandant of the Corps reads a “Birthday Message” to the Marines. The purpose of the birthday message is to contemplate the legacy of the Corps and the responsibilities that all Marines must honor.

History

For about three thousand years, fighting men have served as infantry to secure harbors and land bases and as boarding parties to launch attacks on other ships. The Royal Marines was formed in 1664 as the Maritime Regiment of Foot.

About 100 years later, a Continental Congress committee in the American Colonies met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to create a resolution calling for two Marine battalions to fight on shore and at sea for independence. The U.S. Congress passed “An Act for Establishing and Organizing a Marine Corps” on July 11, 1778. The Congress approved the resolution on November 10, 1775.

Is Marine Corps Birthday a Public Holiday?

The Marine Corps Birthday is not considered a public holiday. This year, it falls on a Saturday and the vast majority of businesses in the United States will follow regular opening hours.

Internal Celebration

Personnel, veterans, and other people associated with the Marine Corps celebrate this day. Usually, this day is celebrated with a birthday cake, a formal dinner, and entertainment at a Marine Corps Birthday Ball. The very first Marine Corps Birthday Ball was held in 1925.

Revolutionary Result

On this day in 1775, the US Marine Corps began under the name of the Continental Marines when the Second Continental Congress ordered two Marine battalions to serve with the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. Both the Continental Navy and the Marines were dismantled after the war. However, eventually, the Marine Corps was re-established formally due to increasing conflict with France.

US Marine Corps Today

The United States Marine Corps is the combined-arms task force on the air, on land, and at sea for the US Armed Forces. The US Marines Corps has more than 180,000 active duty personnel and 40,000 personnel in the Reserve for the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps Reserve is the biggest command in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Undoubtedly, the Marine Corps Birthday is a special day for hundreds of thousands of Marines across the globe. For more information about the United States Marine Corps Birthday and how this day is celebrated, don’t hesitate to contact us.

There are many pieces to the massive Federal exchange that enrolls people for insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, “Obamacare.”) One of them allows insurance brokers and agents to enroll potential beneficiaries directly. (This is different from the consumer-facing part of the exchange, where consumers can enroll themselves.) On October 13, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) detected “anomalous activity” and by October 16, confirmed that a breach had cooccurred. About 75,000 individuals’ records were stolen. CMS shut down the system on October 20 to install new security measures and planned to have it back online by October 27.

CMS was unusually close-mouthed about the breach, noting only that it was contacting those affected and would offer them identity theft protection. This being the case, we can only speculate about what exactly happened. It could have been as something as simple as an agent leaving their password on a Post-It Note under their keyboard, or as sophisticated as exploiting an unknown fundamental vulnerability in the myriad of software packages that make up the entire exchange system. It must also be remembered that the Exchange software talks to several other systems, including the IRS, and the breach may have come from anywhere in the chain. A 2015 report by the HHS Inspector General found the that the whole healthcare.gov system suffered from some vulnerabilities which had not been rectified as of the date of the report. It is now, of course, three years later.

What Lessons Can We Learn From This?

Because CMS has explained virtually nothing about how the breach happened, it is hard to tell what lessons we can draw from it – other than to note that so far, any system that humans can attempt to secure, humans can find a way to penetrate. No system is entirely safe.

Because CMS did not respond to questions, we do not know, for example, whether end-to-end encryption was used for data transmission, and we do not know if the particular data files accessed were encrypted. Encrypting data in both storage and transmission provides an additional layer of protection – in the ideal case, even if the hackers get the data, they can’t use it.

Was It An Inside Job?

Security officials in both the public and the private sectors are well aware that even with all recommended safeguards in place, they are still vulnerable to hacks by employees or other trusted agents. After all, someone has to be able to access that data to use it. Even if the USB ports on the laptops and desktops are filled with glue, even if biometric identifiers are used, an insider can dump data, zip it into a file, and send it to cloud storage, where it can be accessed by anyone with access to that portion of the cloud. And that will include a population beyond one’s own employees. A really sophisticated hacker can keep events from being logged or modify the logs so that there is no trace that the transmission ever happened. Based on the information CMS was willing to release, we cannot conclude that this was not an inside job. The only fact that militates against it is that the amount of data stolen was so small. If someone were really trying to make a killing on the dark web, they would steal far more. Perhaps this breach was just a “proof of concept.” Or it may merely be a case of unauthorized access. We just don’t know.

Trust? Verify? But?

The experiences of the military and the National Security Agency (NSA) with insider theft of data in recent years suggests that even the steps the military and the intelligence services have taken cannot completely protect them from inside jobs. Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Reality Winner all were thoroughly vetted and had authentic credentials. Still, the data got out. (Perhaps it is true, as was said in the early data of the web, that “…data wants to be free.”)

No One Is Safe

Security experts repeatedly tell us that our existing systems cannot be made impenetrably secure. It is the very nature of the technology we use now – for health insurance, for banking, for voting – to send large amounts of critical data across unsecured networks for at least part of their journey. All we can do is encrypt, vet out employees, and – hope.

World War I officially ended on June 28, 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. However, fighting ended seven months earlier due to an armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.” In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11th as Armistice Day with these words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

Although the name “Veteran’s Day” was not used until 1954, this day was designated a legal holiday to celebrate and honor the ending of World War I. In 1938, Armistice Day was “dedicated to the cause of world peace” and to honor the veterans of World War I on November 11th each year, becoming a federal holiday. In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, President Dwight D. Eisenhower changed the name of the holiday to Veteran’s Day to honor American veterans of all wars. In 2018, Veteran’s Day falls on a Sunday which means there will be a Federal holiday for workers on the following Monday. State and local workers’ schedules are determined locally, therefore you should check with your locality to determine whether offices will be open or closed on Monday, November 12, 2018.

What is the Difference between Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day?

The original concept for the celebration of Veteran’s Day was for a day observed with parades and public celebrations and a brief stoppage of business beginning at 11:00 a.m. The observance of Veterans Day ton November 11th preserves the historical significance of the date and helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day, a celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

Memorial Day, also a federal holiday is held on the last Monday in May. It is dedicated to remembering soldiers who lost their lives in battle or from injuries received in battle. Veteran’s Day is a day to honor all veterans, living or dead, who serve or have served in the military honorably during wartime and peacetime. Veterans come from families in all parts of the United States; men and women who serve are embedded deeply in the community. Here are some facts about American veterans:

• 16.1 million living American veterans served during at least one war.
• 5.2 million American veterans served during peacetime.
• 2 million American veterans are women.
• 7 million American veterans served during the Vietnam War.
• 5.5 million American veterans served during the Persian Gulf War.
• 2 million American veterans served during the Korean War.
• As of 2014, 2.9 million American veterans received compensation for service-related disabilities.
• As of 2014, three states have more than 1 million American veterans among their population: California, Florida, and Texas.

How to Celebrate Veteran’s Day

Veteran’s Day is a good day to find a way to thank veterans for serving the United States. There are many veterans living in communities around the U.S., some of whom don’t have relatives to care for them. You can visit patients in Veteran’s Hospitals, nursing homes or neighbors that you know are veterans. Honoring veterans with celebrations and parades is a great idea, but helping them after their service to the U.S. with daily life has great meaning to them as well. Many restaurants offer free meals to veterans on Veteran’s Day, and other businesses give discounts or assistance in any way they can.

Most lawyers realize that their firms would benefit by implementing legal practice management software. Case, contact, and document management tools; accounting, billing, and time tracking features; calendar, schedule, and docket control are all made easier. This allows attorneys to spend their valuable time on clients and cases, rather than on daily paperwork.

There are many benefits to adopting software programs for a law office. They coordinate communication between attorneys and support staff. This helps to properly assign duties and manage deadlines. Additionally, the document management tools allow for a fast, paperless search of files on the go. Generally, practice management software keeps cases organized.

By checking out some of the features that the top law practice management software tools offer, firms can choose the right option for their needs.

How Could Choosing ActionStep Improve the Daily Flow of a Law Office?

This highly flexible, cloud-based practice management solution offers an integrated approach that addresses the basic needs of small to medium-sized firms. ActionStep allows users to design their own workflows to suit their areas of specialty.

Other noteworthy features that ActionStep provides include the following:

• Calendar management
• Client billing
• Client conflict and copyright check
• Client Portal
• Data Security
• Email management
• MS Office Integration

Additionally, with this software, attorneys can access, search and retrieve billing, documents, emails, and file notes, etc. with merely the click of the button.

Why Should Attorneys Choose Bill4Time?

Bill4Time is exactly what it claims to be; it is a time and billing software for companies that bill based on hourly rates. In addition to its standard office software, it has a legal edition. The industry-specific version has America Bar Association (ABA) Task Codes. It also offers checks for conflict of interest, as well as trust accounting and reporting.

One of the top-rated options for law firms, Bill4Time integrates with a variety of payment gateways. These include PayPal, Quickbooks, and other credit card processors. Clients have plenty of flexibility in payment options.

How Does Clio Benefit a Firm?

Clio might be the perfect management tool for law offices. It is designed to provide an array of benefits. Users can effortlessly organize case details, create workflows, and set schedules. It allows firms to take control of their finances with accounting system integration.

Its multiple features streamline nearly all of a law office’s processes. It enables the performance of accounting, client, case, documentation, and information management, office finance, time-tracking, and scheduling with one dynamic platform. Plus, it is compatible with Android, iOS, Mac, and PCs.

How Would HoudiniEsq. Improve a Law Practice?

A legal practice management solution, HoudiniEsq runs both Windows and MAC operating systems. This software includes client management, customizable workflow automation, email management, invoicing, and trust accounting. It comes in both desktop and cloud-based versions.

What Does MyCase Offer?

MyCase is a comprehensive, web-based practice management option for lawyers. This software offers procedures that are easy to use, as well as online payment, and a secure client portal. It also resolves the generally inefficient communication between clients and their legal counsel by providing a single platform for information sharing.

Since many legal users prefer mobile options, this software provides android and IOS apps for its users. MyCase offers legal practice management assistance to their customers by way of certified consultants. This ensures successful software use.

Why Should Lawyers Choose PracticePanther for Their Firm?

A management and billing software tool, PracticePanther is designed to be easy to use for those in the legal profession. In an all-in-one automated and secure software, it combines time tracking and billing, expense management, and payment processing.

Additionally, PracticePanther offers the following features and functions:

• API Access
• Custom Fields
• Daily Agenda Emails
• iPhone, iPad, and Android Apps
• Money-Finder Report
• Online Payment Processing
• Quickbooks Accounting Integration
• Secure Client Portal
• Trust Accounting
• Unlimited Data Storage
• UTBMS Coding & LEDES Billing
• Zapier Integration

This software is designed to help users save many hours per week while managing their practice. This results in a better, more lucrative bottom line.

How Can Tabs3 Be of Service?

This is desktop-based, Windows-only software designed specifically for law firms. Tabs3 is one of the most innovative and intuitive software options. It features advanced compensation formulas, client status reports, customizable billing, and time tracking. Plus, with particular additions, it supports electronic billing formats, such as LEDES. It also seamlessly integrates with Tabs3 accounting, financial, and custom report writing software.

In Conclusion

Many law offices have fewer than five employees. However, they still offer the same services as larger firms do. This means they require software that provides the same comprehensive functions as do bigger practices.

Several of the top practice management software options offer free trials or demos. This allows firms to basically “test-drive” a variety of systems. Then, they can compare the features of each before committing to their favorite.