How is BYOD a security risk?
Connectors: the new Office 365 update
At work, we depend on several apps to be more productive around the office. However, with so many of them open in our web browsers, it can be a drag to constantly click in and out of tabs just to get the information we need. Fortunately, Office 365 Connectors for Groups allows you to stay on top of all the third party services your company is using. So how, exactly, do these connectors make your life easier? Here are a few things you need to know about the new Office 365 feature. What can it do? Office 365 Connectors enable users to access third party apps and services within their Outlook groups, rather than having to scour through dozens of windows to access a specific application. This new feature allows you to keep your company’s discussion in one place, and enables your employees to stay up-to-date regardless of the service used to broadcast an event. For example, your team members can be informed about a particular hashtag that your company is following on Twitter without having to explicitly open the page. Groups aren’t limited to one particular service either. With connectors you can use Twitter, Trello, Mailchimp, Bing, UserVoice and over 50 other services. Small organizations can also take advantage of connectors. Office 365 lets you develop your own connectors by embedding the Connect to Office 365 button on your site. This allows users to connect to your service and get updates on your company, as they would with other third party services. Basically, with connectors, your Office 365 client becomes a hub for third party that keeps your company in sync to get more work done. Connector card Connector cards offer a user friendly way to interact with external applications. If a particular connector is added to a group, connector cards are generated within the group’s activity feed. While most cards will display events in plain text, some applications like Twitter and Trello provide formatted actions to interact with the card. Trello, for example, allows you to Assign or Comment on an event card. Who can create a connector? Office 365 group members can configure and use an array of connectors. Once you configure a connector for a specific group, that app will be also be available for other members. However, the person who added a connector to the group is the only one capable of modifying that app. How do you access Office 365 Connectors? With its public release, any Office 365 Mail user can use Office 365 Connectors for Groups. Simply navigate to a Group from your Outlook page and click on the Connectors tab at the top of the page. From here, you can connect the available third party services on offer to any of your Outlook groups. You can even configure the settings of your apps without ever having to leave Office 365. However you should probably only consider pulling in the applications that you think your group will be using the most. As your business grows, you’re going to need more services to be more productive in the workplace. By aggregating them all in one place, you save time shifting around dozens of apps to find the information that you need. So the next time you create an Office 365 Group, help your team members work more efficiently by setting up some connectors. If you’re interested in learning about the latest Office 365 updates, contact us today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
A crash course on the Blue Screen of Death
Everything seems fine at first, your PC is running normally but then a blue screen suddenly greets you. After restarting your computer you find that a lot of your unsaved work is gone. If this has happened to you before, rest assured, you’re not alone. What you’ve just encountered is the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) and it appears when there is an issue with either your hardware or software. Fortunately, there are ways to troubleshoot these problems. Here are some of the common causes of a critical failure error and how you can fix them. Find out what caused your BSoD The next time you get the blue screen, don’t panic. This is just an alert to prevent further system damage to your computer and to indicate the cause of crash. The most important part of the blue screen is the error name which displays messages like “Driver_IRQL_not_less_or_equal”. For Windows 8 to 10 users, this information is usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. For troubleshooting advice, a memory dump containing details of your latest crash can be found in Event Viewer > System > Windows Logs and click any messages indicating an error. Under the General tab you will see a full report of your latest crash — this should be given to an IT technician so they can help you further. Fixing the problem: Update your drivers Crashes are generally caused by problems with hardware or the driver software that is allowing that specific hardware to run. If you’re getting frequent blue screens, try to recall any recent changes you have made to your computer. Have you recently installed a new driver for an external device? You can also check if any drivers are conflicting by going to Control Panel > Device Manager. If you see a warning icon on any of the devices, there is something wrong with the device. Chances are, specific drivers are either outdated or weren’t properly installed. To update, simply search online for your specific computer manufacturer and install the drivers provided in their list. Remember to only install the drivers that apply to the specific model of your device and your operating system. For example, if your operating system is Windows 8, only download Windows 8 related items for your specific model. Other hardware problems BSoD can also indicate hardware problems. Running very intensive programs that your CPU can’t handle will cause your computer to overheat and eventually crash. If you use a laptop, try to keep it on flat surfaces and away from fabric material as this could block the fan vents and cause your laptop to overheat. Your RAM could also be faulty. Check if it’s attached to your CPU properly or go to Windows memory diagnostics to find out if you’re straining your RAM. System restore Using system restore will allow you to undo any significant software changes that are crashing your PC. To restore your computer to a previous time, go to Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore then click on Recover System Settings for your Computer. From here you can select a restore point to a date where you think your computer was not experiencing frequent crashes. Check for viruses Some types of malware can cause instabilities in your operating system causing your PC to crash. If you are aware that your computer is infected with a virus, try running antivirus software. However, make sure you’re not running two antivirus software at the same time while you’re doing this. Both programs can conflict with each other and, in some cases, cause system crashes. Clean reboot This option is your last resort if none of the solutions above work. For Windows 8 or 10 users simply go to Settings > Update and Security > Recovery then select Reset this PC. If your computer is still getting frequent blue screens then it would be best to go to an IT consultant and have them look over your hardware. The Blue Screen of Death is one of the biggest problems your company’s hardware is going to face. Consider using any of the above solutions to fix your blue screen and hopefully everything will be back to normal. If you would like to know more about any general hardware advice, or if you have any concerns regarding your IT, contact us today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Using Facebook emoticons to your advantage
Technology ROI 101
Your technology needs to produce a return on investment. If it doesn’t, you’re wasting you and your staff’s time and money. But how can you ensure you gain that coveted ROI you’re after? What does it actually mean to have a positive ROI? And how can you tell if you have one? Here are a few tips for calculating the true costs of a new technology investment. ROI basics What does it mean to have a positive return on investment? It’s pretty simple. A positive ROI means the results a technology produces are greater than or equal to the amount of time and money invested. Obviously you want a positive ROI, but when is the right time to consider it? Should it be before or after you make a technology purchase? The answer is both. Before purchasing, you want to carefully consider whether a technology service or product is worth your money. Then months after you’ve implemented it, you should analyze whether or not you made a good investment. Doing this enables you to learn from your mistakes (if you made one) and make a wiser technology purchase next time. Also, don’t forget to look at your technology currently in use. Ask yourself, is your technology simply keeping the lights on? Or is it providing a solid foundation for your business to grow? If the answer is the former, there are likely better options out there worth trying. How to calculate ROI When calculating ROI, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Here is a simple formula to get you started. ROI = net gain/cost Example: You spend $100 and make $150. Your net gain is $50 ROI = 50/100 = 50% If you’ve yet to purchase a service or new equipment, you obviously don’t know how much profit it will generate. So you’ll have to do a bit of guesswork and estimation. It’s also important to consider some intangibles. Think about the productivity costs of staff time, disruption, and frustration (because most of us don’t work effectively when frustrated). Let’s take staff time for example. How much time will your staff save if you implement a Managed Services solution? With your employees no longer having to put out IT fires daily, what if your entire staff saves 50 hours a week because of it? How much does that add up to in saved salary expense? It’s important here not just to think about the savings in time, but also what your staff could be doing with those extra 50 hours. They could put those hours towards marketing or growing your business. And that alone could make up for the costs of the technology investment itself. Intangibles don’t just apply to saving time, frustration and disruptions, but also the costs of implementing the new technology. For example, how much time will be required to train your staff on the new technology? What’s the cost of that? Also, how much time will it take to migrate from your old system to the new one? You should consider all of these when estimating your ROI. Lastly, don’t forget to consider the unique circumstance of subscription purchases. Since you are usually paying these on a monthly basis, it can be a bit tricky to add up real costs. That’s why it’s important to use a timeline for these. For example, if you subscribe to software as a service, what’s the cost of that plan over the course of one year or five? How much money will you save over that time span? What’s the benefit? Besides the staffing example mentioned above, consider how a technology investment can create new revenue streams. For example, an investment in VoIP opens up an opportunity to offer video consulting to clients in parts of the country (or even world) that would normally be out of reach. This obviously leads to a new revenue stream and increased profits. So ask yourself, can the technology you’re considering create new revenue streams? Next steps Before making a technology purchase, it’s wise to talk with both management and end users about your decision. If you fail to consult your end users before implementation, they may disagree with your decision and therefore take longer to adapt or even rebel against it. Checking with them beforehand gives them a chance to offer valuable feedback on how it will be used in the trenches, and will get them onboard with the technology if you implement it. As for your management team, they can be a valuable resource to bounce ideas off of and gain insights about the technology you may have overlooked. Lastly, ROI does not need to be calculated for every purchase. If you need to buy something small, like a new keyboard, just go and buy it. Save your ROI calculations for much larger investments that can have a dramatic impact on your business. If you need help determining the ROI of a potential technology investment, feel free to give us a call for a chat. Our experts can help you determine the true benefits of a given technology and help you make a wise investment. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
How to find out if your computer has a virus
New, native ad blocker coming to Opera
Ads are becoming increasingly intrusive on today’s web browsers. They can slow down the load time of pages, and cause potential security and privacy issues. So it’s no surprise that ad blockers are becoming more and more popular. However, as they do, they’re also cutting into the revenue of online advertisers. With the upcoming release of Opera’s new ad blocker that’s incorporated directly into the browser, business owners may be both excited and disturbed. On one hand, their own personal browsing experience will be smoother with less disruptive ads, and on another their advertising reach may become more limited. How it works When Opera’s new ad blocking feature becomes live, it will be switched off by default. However, when an ad is causing a web page to slow down, the user will be prompted to turn it on. If you’re an Opera user who’d like to do this for yourself, simply click the shield icon in the upper right hand corner of your browser. For whatever reason, if you don’t want to block ads for a specific website, you’ll also have that option, which can be adjusted in the browser’s settings. Why is Opera doing this? One spokeswoman for Opera remarked, “Ad-blocking technology is an opportunity and a wake-up call to the advertising industry to pay attention to what consumers are actually saying.” In other words, consumers are annoyed with intrusive ads that are irrelevant, and Opera believes this is an opportunity for advertisers to create better, more engaging ads. When that happens, ad blocking will become less of an issue. How will this affect your business? Ad blocking is not new, as other browsers provide a similar service. The only difference is that competitors like Google Chrome and Firefox use extensions to enable this feature. However, Opera has said that with the use of their native ad blocker, their browser on average runs 45% faster than using Google Chrome with the AdBlock Plus extension and 21% faster than using Firefox with that same extension. In today’s browser competition, and really the world in general, speed is currency. And this could cause users to abandon their current browser and flock to Opera. You should bear in mind that right now, Opera isn’t an incredibly popular browser. According to the online statistics service W3Counter, Opera was only used by 3% of all Internet users this past February, while Google Chrome was used by 47.5%. With that said, many of Opera’s technological advances have later caught on with other major browsers. For example, Opera pioneered both pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing, which are now the norm for major browsers. So if your business heavily relies on online advertisements, should you be worried? Unfortunately only time will tell. With that said, it’s likely not time to panic just yet. What can your business do? Some companies, like Forbes and New York Times, are already taking action, and experimenting with preventing ad blocking users to access their site. While this probably isn’t an option for you just yet, there are other marketing avenues you can explore. For example, businesses that rely on inbound marketing, which drives users to your business by providing free valuable content, will see little effect (if any) by Opera’s new ad blocking feature. Also, it should be noted that Opera’s ad blocker will not block all ads. It is predominantly focusing on those that are intrusive to users and cause browsing slow down. So if you’re a big on those pesky flash ads that many Internet users despise, it’s likely wise to shift focus to creating leaner, more engaging ads. They’re much less likely to be blocked. Want to learn more about ad blocking, browsers or cloud technology? Send us a message. We’re happy to help in anyway we can. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
10 Office 365 features you need to know about
So you’ve been using Office 365 for you business for quite some time now. But did you know there are a few nifty features that you can use to make work just a little bit easier? From cutting down tedious tasks to getting work done with multiple people at the same time, Office 365 has got you covered. Here are some hidden (and not so hidden) tips and tricks to help make the most out of this cloud service. Simultaneously edit a document with other people With Office 365, people can work together on any Word, PowerPoint or Excel document in real time. This means multiple people can edit a document, figure out what changes have been made and who made them. So if your employees are still creating documents by themselves, sending them over to their coworkers by email, and silently waiting for a reply, then this Office 365 feature can help cut down on unnecessary email waiting time. Skype over a document with your coworkers In addition to being able to work together on a single document, you can also verbally discuss the edits over Skype. This application lets you talk to everyone who is working on the document with a simple click of a button. You can also keep talking to your coworkers even after you’ve left the Office document session. Link to files, don’t attach them Is the file you’re sending too big? With the business editor of Office 365, you won’t have to worry about compressing your documents before sending them over email. You can simply attach the link to the file on your cloud application (Outlook Web App) and people with access to the link can immediately begin editing. Let Bing find presentation images for you Sometimes you just need that second opinion when you’re picking images for your presentation. That’s where Office Sway comes in. Basically, the application employs Bing image search to locate possible images that you can use for your presentation based on the words you are using. Laser pointer mouse icon Forgot your laser pointer on the day of your presentation? Simply go into presentation mode and hold Ctrl and the Left-Click mouse button to replace your mouse cursor with a laser pointer. Change your electronic scribbles into text This OneNote feature allows you to convert your electronic scribbles into text in just a few steps. Simply select the “Lasso Select” tool and circle the area you want edited and choose the “Ink to Text” option. Electronic signatures Printing out a document to sign it and then scanning it back to digital format is a bit outdated. However, with the Docusign app, you can setup your own electronic signature and sign documents easily from any device. Create excel charts with ease Office 365 has built in new features that will allow Excel to better present and format your data. Simply select the cells that you would want in a graph or table, open the Quick Analysis tool and pick however you would like to visually represent your information. Voila! Instant chart. Turn data from Excel into a map Speaking of visual representation, did you know that you can convert your data into images? Provided that your data takes note of geographic locations, the Power Map feature can immediately distribute your recorded facts and figures over a 3D map. Create and Convert PDF Files You have a variety of choices when creating PDF files from word documents. Exporting your word documents into PDF files can be done by going to File>Export>Create PDF/XPS. You also have the option of saving just a portion of a file by indicating the pages you want to only be converted into PDF. On the other hand, if you would like to edit a PDF, just open the file in the word document, where the PDF content will be opened in a new file. From here, you can copy and edit any content, images or diagrams. Consider utilizing some or all of these features to make the most out of Office 365 and make your life a bit easier. If you’d like to know more about other features that Office 365 has to offer, give us a call. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
3 Disaster Recovery myths
Infuse life into your old laptop
It can be tough to see your laptop die. While you likely shared many good moments with it, undoubtedly, there will come a time when it’s ready to be retired to the back of the closet or disposed of. If you are lucky enough to still have yours hanging around the house or office, then there’s no better time to dust it off. A new software is available that’s breathing new life into old laptops across the country. Here’s what you need to know. A New York City based startup known as Neverware has developed a dual-boot system that essentially turns your old laptop into a Chromebook, and even uses the same operating system as a Chromebook: Chrome OS. The software that enables this is called CloudReady and, once installed on your system, you can switch between your old OS and Chrome OS at startup. How does CloudReady revive your old laptop? Because the Chrome OS operating system is lightweight, it frees up your laptop from its old, sluggish operating system. With CloudReady installed, your old laptop can boot up more than twice as fast, and you can browse the web twice as fast as well. However, it should be noted that these times vary, and in some cases, you may see no difference in speed. Does it work for all laptops? Most, but not all. CloudReady can be installed on many different models of the Macbook Pro and iMac. As for Windows, it will only work on PCs preinstalled with Windows 7 and up, and installed in UEFI mode. While that last bit may sound a bit confusing, if your laptop is ten years old or younger, CloudReady will likely work. How to install CloudReady To get started, you’ll need the following two items: A laptop with internet connection A USB drive with at least 8 gigs of storage Everything else you’ll need to install the software can be found at Neverware’s website. Once you’ve got all your tools handy, here’s how you install it: Download the OS Install OS on a USB drive Insert USB into your old laptop and reboot it to CloudReady drive Install the OS on your laptop’s internal drive (make sure to backup your files first). Depending on how tech savvy you are, the installation process can take anywhere between 45 minutes, to well over an hour. So is it worth trying? Well, besides maybe an hour or two of your time, you don’t really have much to lose by giving it a shot. If you’d like more ideas on how to improve the life of your hardware or are interested in buying some new tech gear this Spring, get in touch with our experts today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.