IT Voice

Author: seth

  • DOES YOUR COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT TEAM SUCCESS?


    Phone technology for business requires not only a significant amount of hardware and software to work properly, but also a team of skilled and knowledgeable employees who know how to use it. Unfortunately, some phone systems are burdensome and difficult to work with, leading to frustration among your team members. A phone system upgrade is the perfect opportunity to ensure that you are providing your team with the support and technology they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.

    RELIABILITY

    Whether it’s handheld devices, headsets, or computers, the number one complaint among customer service representatives is that their daily work equipment is unreliable. When it comes to phone technology for business, your team needs to know that their phones won’t be dropping calls, their computers will operate smoothly through their troubleshooting workflow, and that they will be able to move quickly from one call to the next without leaving customers on hold for lengthy periods of time. Unreliable equipment upsets not only the customers, but also the people who are forced to use it day in and day out.

    EFFICIENCY

    With all of the advancements in phone technology for business, you also have the ability to give your team an extremely streamlined and simple way to access customer information. The right CRM software can be the difference between day and night for your employees when they are trying to track down account information, view recent changes, or help solve a problem. The faster your team can access the customer’s information based on their phone number and move between screens, the faster they can resolve the issue and move on to the next customer.

    SHARED NETWORKING

    Another major piece of the teamwork puzzle is ensuring that your phone technology supports all of the different departments in your organization. Many times, companies provide advanced technology for their call center employees but cut costs when it comes to their other departments. The end result is that it becomes more difficult for problems to be solved between different parts of your company. Rolling out a new phone system that brings everybody onboard with the same software and accessibility will greatly improve the way your team members talk to one another and allow for information to flow smoothly.

    It is always difficult to make the transition to new equipment, but if you can prove that your new phone system will lead your team to success, they are more likely to be excited about the prospective change. The key is showing them that the new system will make their jobs will easier to do and will offer both internal and external support as they work.

  • Your employee’ social media account was hacked How does it affect you?

    Your employee’ social media account was hacked. How does it affect you?

    Did you know that social media accounts are one of the favorite targets for cybercriminals? You may think cybercriminals would prefer to hack online banking accounts or shopping accounts, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Here’s why. Social media accounts hold A LOT of personal information including name, email ID, date of birth, place of birth, place of work (your business!) high school attended, names of family, friends and pets, anniversaries, and more…which means, they are basically gold mines of Personally Identifiable Data (PII). Plus, if you play games and have your credit card details saved, there’s more information and better the chances for the cybercriminal to commit fraud. All of this data can then be used to hack into other accounts of the user, including financials. So, hacking into someone’s social media account can help cybercriminals gain entry into other, more ‘useful’ and secure accounts.

    But, how does it matter to you, as a business? If your employee’s personal social media account is hacked, it shouldn’t affect you, as a company, right? Wrong…here’s how it can affect you.
    • If the employee whose social media account is hacked is the administrator of your company’s official social media handles, you are in big trouble as hackers will gain access to your company account and consequently to customer information, because you may be having clients who follow your business account on social media. The whole situation can result in a lot of damage to your business and brand reputation and also result in penalties and possible lawsuits.
    • Even if your employee doesn’t handle your company’s social handles, the hackers may have enough of their PII to try and pry open a small entryway into your IT network.
    You can avoid such mishaps by
    • Training your staff on social media and cybersecurity best practices including advanced privacy and permission settings for social media accounts
    • Ensuring your employees are able to identify and steer clear of phishing and social media frauds
    • Helping your employees understand the importance of practicing good password hygiene across all their online accounts–social, work or personal.
    • Ensuring they realize that their Facebook or LinkedIn account is not ‘just another online socializing platform’, but an actual gold mine of information and only those who they really trust should be able to access them.
    • Sharing regular Day Zero Alerts and relevant news articles with your staff that keeps them updated on the latest modus operandi and happenings related to cybercrime
    Your managed IT services provider will be able to help you in organizing and conducting these kinds of training and awareness sessions at regular intervals for your staff.

  • 3 Things to consider before you sign-up with a cloud services provider

    3 Things to consider before you sign-up with a cloud services provider

    More and more SMBs are migrating to the cloud and that is not a surprise considering the numerous benefits the cloud can offer them. For a SMB, the cloud is a cost efficient and secure answer to their growing data needs and IT security requirements. The cloud grows with them and lets them scale their business without worrying about a corresponding rise in IT costs. Plus, with the cloud, the important aspects of security and backups are mostly taken care of by the cloud service provider. And then, there’s the convenience of any-time-anywhere data access. With all these benefits that the cloud brings, what’s there to think about before signing up with a cloud service provider? While are a lot of benefits of storing your data on the cloud, but your data is still yours, so there are a few things you need to know and be comfortable with before you jump onto the cloud.

    Data storage location

    Ask your cloud services provider where, (as in the location of the data center) your data will be stored. Ask them if they have multiple data centers and if yes, then, will they be backing up your data and storing them at different places. It is great if your cloud services provider does that, since that ensures higher safety of your data.

    How secure will your data be?

    Yes. When you hire a cloud services provider, a major chunk of your data’s security responsibility is passed onto them. You don’t have to really worry about your data security, but, you still need to know how they plan to keep your data safe. Ask your cloud services provider for details regarding their data security procedure. Have them share all policies, SOPs and data security frameworks that they claim to have in place.

    Past performance/data loss history

    Everyone talks about their best projects in a sales meeting. What you really need to know are the worst ones. Ask your cloud services provider to share with you their data loss/downtime trends for the past one year. Observe the trend. How often does their system give way and how long does it last? This is important for you to understand, because this metric translates into loss of business for you.

    And finally, don’t forget to ask for a client list. Like we said before, everyone highlights the good things about themselves in a sales meeting. If you really want to know how good your cloud service provider is, ask them for a client list–both current and past. Check how many of them are from your industry vertical. Try reaching out to those who are willing to talk. Find out what they like the most about your cloud service provider and what aspects they find negative. Find out why their former customers left them. Usually customers are pretty good indicators of the quality of service a business provides. Hope these tips help you finding a cloud service provider who fits in well with your needs.

  • 8 Hard Truths for SMBs not Worried About Data Recovery and Business Continuity

     
     
    8 Cold Hard Truths for SMBs Not Worried About Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
     
    The foundation of any successful business continuity solution is the ability to retrieve data from any point in time from anywhere. When the topic of data recovery and business continuity comes up, you get the feeling that many decision makers at smaller businesses and organizations wish they could channel their inner six year old, simply cover their ears, and sing “La, la, la. I Can’t Hear You. I’m Not Listening.”
     
    Everybody thinks bad things only happen to other people. Just because we hear about a fatal car accident on the morning news, doesn’t mean we fixate on that news when we ourselves get into a car and drive to work.
     
    So no matter how many times the owner or executive of a small to midsize business (SMB) hears of other small businesses being crippled by hurricanes, tornados, fires, or flooding, they aren’t necessarily overcome with fear to the point that they feel an urgency to take action.
     
    Sure, they may think about backup and data recovery solutions a little more that day, but not enough to initiate immediate change or reverse a lenient approach to their processes.
     
    If you fall into this category, here are eight cold hard truths to consider
    • It isn’t natural disasters or catastrophic losses like fires that take down small businesses but something far more sinister – malware. Cyber attacks through malware have grown exponentially in the past four years. Malware is hitting everything from PCs to Macs to mobile devices and it’s inflicting damage.
    • Over half of the small businesses in the U.S. have experienced disruptions in day-to-day business operations. 81% of these incidents have led to downtime that has lasted anywhere from one to three days.
    • According to data compiled by the Hughes Marketing Group, 90% of companies employing less than 100 people spend fewer than eight hours a month on their business continuity plan.
    • 80% of businesses that have experienced a major disaster are out of business within three years. Meanwhile, 40% of businesses impacted by critical IT failure cease operations within one year. 44% of businesses ravaged by a fire fail to ever reopen, and only 33% of those that do reopen survive any longer than three years.
    • Disaster recovery solution providers estimate that 60% to 70% of all business disruptions originate internally – most likely due to hardware or software failure or human error.
    • 93% of businesses unable to access their data center for ten or more days filed for bankruptcy within twelve months of the incident.
    • In the United States alone, there are over 140,000 hard drive crashes each week.
    • 34% of SMBs never test their backup and recovery solutions – of those who do, over 75% found holes and failures in their strategies.
    It’s critical that small businesses review their backup and disaster recovery processes and take business continuity seriously. Given the vulnerabilities associated with the cloud and workforce mobility, the risk of critical data loss today is quite serious and firms must be truly prepared for the unexpected.
     
    Contact us at Slappey Communications

  • 4 COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT UPGRADING TECHNOLOGY


    For years, technology has been advancing at a rate faster than many businesses can afford to keep up with. In most cases, this means that when you are ready to make a big upgrade, you will actually be leaping over several generations of improvements to get on board with the latest in business telecommunication. Meanwhile, the next great thing is probably just around the corner. Fear not, though: you don’t need to be intimidated by the rapidly shifting landscape of technology anymore. Let’s debunk some of the most common views:

    IT’S TOO COMPLICATED

    If your business telecommunication system has been in place for a long time and it has always worked the way it was designed, you are probably wondering why you should jump on-board with newer Internet integrated communications technology. After all, all those extra features just make it harder to learn, right? Wrong. The truth is that the latest round of business telecommunication systems are designed to streamline your processes and automate many tasks. This actually makes it easier to learn and use on a day-to-day basis.

    THERE WILL BE DOWN TIME

    The fear of experiencing downtime, especially for small businesses, is very real. Every second that your customers are unable to reach you is money lost. The good news is that with cloud-based telecom solutions and the help of a skilled team, the software rollout can be done without disconnecting your phones at all. From there, extensive testing will be done on the system before it goes live to ensure that the transition happens as smoothly as possible. The goal is to achieve more reliability, and that starts on day one.

    IT’S JUST A PHONE

    Your business telecommunication system embodies far more than just the desk phones that your team uses. It includes your fax machines, message machines, call routing system, and more. Many people believe that an upgrade is pointless because answering the phone has stayed the same. The truth is that new technology carries a whole host of advanced features and may have gotten rid of some outdated features. Hiring a consultant to build a specialized phone system for your business will ensure that you get the right mix of new technology to support all of your needs.

    THE CLOUD IS TOO NEW

    There is still a significant amount of distrust when it comes to cloud technology. Most of us are only familiar with the kind of technology that we can physically hold in our hands and see working. The cloud removes much of the physical presence of your service and handles it offsite. The good news is that cloud management companies have made it possible to achieve 99% uptime and handle all the maintenance on their end, resulting in a more reliable system on your end with less work for your IT team.

    The best way to move forward with your business telecommunication systems is to seek the assistance of a communications specialist. Their consultants will be able to identify areas of your organization that will benefit from newer technology while building a cost-friendly custom package that will serve your customers well. Just do your research first and learn about what is available to help your business run smoother.


  • Eight common password mistakes to avoid

    Eight common password mistakes to avoid

    Research points out that more 80% of data breaches happen due to password hacking, meaning that poor password hygiene is responsible for a majority of cybercrimes that follow data breaches. To make sense of this statistic better, let’s first look at what constitutes poor password hygiene.

    Using simple passwords

    Often passwords that are easy-to-remember are easy-to-hack. Do you use passwords such as password, password1234, delta123, etc.,? If yes, then you should be changing them at the earliest to something less obvious.

    Repeating passwords across platforms

    As another solution for remembering passwords, people tend to use one, single password universally. This dilutes the password even if it is a strong one. Plus, there’s always the risk of the password being hacked at one place and putting the data stored at all other places also at risk.

    Unauthorized password sharing

    Unauthorized password sharing for the sake of getting things done faster is a very real problem. For example, someone is on leave and someone else needs access to a particular file from their computer. The employee who is on leave shares the password and that can result in a security compromise.

    Writing down passwords

    This the most obvious, yet oft-made password mistake. Just so they don’t forget the passwords, people tend to write them down on a piece of paper, a diary or sometimes, store it on their phone. You know what can follow if the piece of paper or diary or the phone is stolen. Same goes for storing passwords on email and if the email server is compromised.

    Not revoking access on time

    Cases where ex-employees log-in credentials were used to hijack company data are not unusual. When companies forget to revoke the access of employees as they move out of the department or organization, they are leaving a gaping cybersecurity hole open which is easy to take advantage of.

    Not updating passwords

    Using the same password for years or even months can be risky. Passwords should be changed every 3 months and perhaps even sooner for critical applications.

    Single factor authentication

    For the more critical areas, multi-factor authentication must be deployed. Relying on password alone is a huge cybersecurity risk. Multi-factor authentication includes tokens, biometric authentication, OTPs, etc., which make it very difficult to hack into the application.

    These are some of the basic password mistakes that almost everyone is guilty of at some point. You can prevent these from happening in your organization by educating your staff about them and training them well to cultivate good password hygiene.

  • So, what is this “Unified Communications” thing, anyhow?



    So, what is this “Unified Communications” thing, anyhow?

    Have you heard the term unified communications tossed around lately? It seems to be used a lot in IT, telecomm, and work collaboration circles. Unified communications is a newer concept that refers to a conceptual platform where multiple communications channels can join together to increase productivity and facilitate collaboration. Here’s one way to look at it. Imagine that you only own one car. And imagine it is a sporty two seater. And then imagine you decide to invite five of your friends, none of whom are able to drive, out to dinner. This means you would have to pick each one up separately and drive him or her to the restaurant. And of course, one of them lives down an old rough farm road, so you have to drive very slowly so you don’t damage the underside of your expensive little two seater.

    This scenario is pretty similar to the way we handle business communications today. We aren’t able to just throw everyone together in a great big van and go out and have fun. Think about all of the possible ways we communicate and collaborate in the workplace. We use email, vmail, the office phone, our mobile phone for voice, our mobile phone, a chat app, and perhaps an occasional fax thrown in for good measure. Not to mention, the workplace isn’t always a specific physical location because a virtual office can exist anywhere. Slowly but surely over the past few decades the tools we use to communicate have multiplied and the locations available to “conduct” business have reached an infinite number. So, instead of driving everyone individually out to dinner, it is time we considered buying a nice big van. And that is the idea behind the concept of unified communications. It is time to look at all of our communications channels and begin exploring how we can combine them to save time and energy, and become more efficient. And perhaps as a bonus, improve the quality of our collaboration and outcomes.

  • Protecting yourself against poison attacks

    Protecting yourself against poison attacks

    Data poisoning by way of logic corruption, data manipulation and data injection happen when the attacker finds a way to access your data set. The kind of poison attack varies depending on the level of access the attacker is able to achieve Here’s what you can do to ensure such access is prevented.

    1. The data poisoning attacks discussed above adversely affect your IT system’s machine learning capabilities. So, the first logical step would be to invest in a good machine learning malware detection tool. These tools are different from the typical anti-malware tools you get in the market and are specifically designed to prevent machine learning capability poisoning.
    2. Always follow general IT security best practices such as-

      1. Training your employees to identify spam, phishing attempts, and possible malware attacks
      2. Following good password hygiene, which means never sharing passwords and only using passwords that meet the required security standards
      3. Having a powerful IT audit process, tracking and version control tools, so as to thwart any possible insider attacks
      4. Ensuring the physical security of your IT systems by way of biometric access, CCTV systems, etc.,

    Whether it is data poisoning or a malware attack, you certainly don’t have the time to look into all the security aspects yourself. Even if you happen to have an in-house IT team, this 24/7 monitoring may be too much for them to handle as you grow. Consider bringing a reputed MSP on board to help you with this, so you can focus on your business, worry-free, while they ensure your data is safe.

  • EVALUATING CLOUD PHONE PLANS: 4 FACTORS TO CONSIDER


    Choosing a cloud phone provider is not a decision to be taken lightly. Each provider has a unique set of products and services to offer, and not all plans are created equal. It’s important to evaluate plans side by side and ask the right questions to truly understand whether or not you are getting the best deal.

    Suitability to Your Organization

    This is a big deal, despite the fact that it is usually overlooked during the consultation. Do they provide cloud phone plans that are specifically suited to the size and type of organization you are running? Do they have any other customers who are similar in scale to your organization? Just because they can serve a huge call center enterprise does not mean that they have the tools necessary to serve a small to mid-sized warehouse, or vice versa. Close compatibility with your business type is a must.

    Integration Processes

    When you sign up for cloud phones, the hope is that they will fit perfectly into your system with minimal disruption to your normal operations. However, this often requires the support of a fully trained implementation and integration team working on your behalf. As you evaluate cloud phone plans, ask each service provider how they will assist you during the implementation process and whether or not they will provide support and training to your team in the months following the installation. Avoid those who don’t offer seamless transitioning with full support.

    Service Guarantees

    Finally, as you discuss your options for cloud phone plans, ask about the provider’s service guarantees. This subject is larger than their up-time and customer satisfaction scores. You also want to know if they can guarantee ongoing support for new innovations in the business communications world, and if they have the redundancy and security measures in place to survive the changing risk landscape.

    Backup Plans

    In the event that things do not go according to plan with your new phone system, you need to know what kind of support you will receive from your service provider. For instance, if you suddenly discover that your internet is not reliable, and you cannot get a better connection, does your cloud phone provider offer a different network solution that will work for you. Do they approach every project with the same one-size-fits-all mentality, or are they really interested in providing you with a solution that works for you and willing to pull out all the stops to ensure you are satisfied throughout the entirety of your contract? Remember, if you are not satisfied with your service, it could take up to 45 days to port your phones to a new service, so there is limited ability to make an emergency move if things aren’t working out. It is better to ensure that you have options within your contract than to jump ship after you’re faced with a real emergency.

    All cloud phone plans look similar on paper, but it is the background details that will really tell you whether or not you are getting the best service. Don’t just read brochures. Ask questions, take notes, and evaluate the options with your management team to decide which plan will give you the best results long term.

  • HOW TO IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM WITH YOUR PHONE SYSTEM FAILURE.


    Identifying the real reason why your phone system fails should be your top priority, aside from getting your system fixed. You need to identify if the problem is with your actual system or your carrier.

    Here are a few questions to answer:
    • Is more than one phone (or another endpoint) failing?
    • Are you getting alerts on a regular basis?
    • Has your area experienced any power surges or outages?

    Learning your system will help you understand normal and abnormal behavior. If a few phones are going out at once, it could be a sign of a hardware problem. If the entire home office lost functionality with their systems, then it may be a carrier issue. If you trim a branch on a tree, the branches grow back. If you can determine the root cause for why you’re having issues, then it will actually fix your problem.


    Our guide, Why phones fail: a guide to getting help faster, breaks down the many areas where problems can reside. Download your free copy!