Year: 2018

What are the top three business collaboration trends for 2018?

When Gartner released its 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018 last month, one of the biggest themes was “the blending of the digital and physical worlds to create an immersive, digitally enhanced environment”. Even though this was predicting generic tech trends, in many ways, this epitomises what is happening with collaboration in the workplace. Today’s businesses have become a combination of people, devices, content and services that collaborate through multi-dimensional communication.

In 2018 and beyond, any trends in workplace technology will reflect this evolving and increasingly connected environment. We have identified three key areas that will influence collaboration for the year ahead.

Fluid and flexible Office Layouts

The transformation of workspaces and office layouts has had a real positive impact on employee collaboration in recent years. We can expect this trend pick up pace in 2018, as we see more Smart Buildings going up and traditional office walls coming down. Whether it’s a new build corporate HQ or an SME’s small scale office refurb, the physical barriers to collaboration are being removed. Workspaces are being rethought and redesigned, creating connected environments that bring people and information together to improve operational efficiency and productivity.

Cost savings is one of the biggest drivers behind the changes as companies look to get the most out of their floor space. Inevitably, the evolving workforce and the rise of remote working have had a dramatic impact on the need for flexible layouts. In 2018 and beyond, offices will be far more fluid with multi-use spaces that incorporate smaller meeting areas and huddle rooms. Technology will be the key enabler to allow employees to seamlessly communicate and collaborate wherever they choose to work and meet.

Improved user experience and ease of adoption

The transitioning working environment and distributed workforces has increased demand for effective and intuitive collaboration technology. Employees want to connect and collaborate with their colleagues regardless of their location or device. The process has to be simple and seamless, whether the user is connecting from a meeting room, their own device or a third party platform.

Employees want intelligent, unified solutions that are easy to use and integrate with the rest of the office’s systems. Businesses have become wise to investing in solutions purely based on technological capabilities. They want simple ‘plug and play’ with all of the functionality but none of the set up hassle. The latest collaboration solutions should be focused around ease of use and adoption to drive productivity and improve visual communication.

Virtual Reality

It may sound like a giant leap, however, as interactivity already forms the basis of many of today’s collaboration solutions, virtual and augmented reality is the next logical step. There was much hype surrounding VR/AR last year and speculation as to how it can be used effectively to improve collaboration. This kind of immersive technology is certainly one to watch during the year, even if it is only at the early adopters’ stage. Collaboration could be one of the biggest application areas for AR and VR, particularly with the any time, any place, any where work ethic that is prevalent in many organisations.

The devices are still evolving, yet there are an abundance of apps and 360 degree videos geared already been trialled in sectors such as education. There is also huge scope for VR in the corporate world. In creative industries and areas involving product design, VR would enable teams to collaborate by visualising proposed ideas and changes from different locations. In fact, VR would allow cross-company collaboration on just about any process that can be carried out in the physical world, from marketing and manufacturing, to production and finance. They can all be simulated and visualised in the digital world, whether it is for training or practical applications.

Summary

The way that we work is changing rapidly, businesses need to ensure they have a technology strategy that is adaptable and fluid and, ultimately, moves with the demands of their workforce.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Avocor specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation. There’s also a great range of resources available on the Avocor blog.

Give us a call on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form to discuss your requirements with us.

Many customers are challenged by the need to enable user access from anywhere on any device, while ensuring the security of valuable business data.

In a mobile-first, cloud-first world, employees are always on the go, which can increase organisational risk.

At the heart of many attacks is user identity. Stolen and/or weak passwords are used in 81% of all hacking-related security breaches. And users’ risky password habits don’t help:

• 75% of users use the same password for social networking and email
• 71% of accounts are guarded by passwords used across multiple sites, and 46% of users employ a password that is at least 5 years old

You need modern options to help safeguard and manage identities, detect and respond to identity-based threats, and protect against password threats.

How can Microsoft solutions help?

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is a complete, intelligent solution, including Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Enterprise Mobility + Security, that empowers everyone to be creative and work together, securely.

With Microsoft 365 Enterprise, you can protect user identities across the organisation:

• Manage and control access to corporate resources by providing a single identity for each user, and single sign-on access across your entire enterprise
• Multi-factor authentication increases user mobility while helping reduce organisational risk
• Reduce the vulnerabilities that come with passwords with Windows Hello
• Add controls that allow only the right people access to certain resources with conditional access

Cloud app security helps provide better visibility and enhanced protection against cloud security issues.

Click here to read how Aston Martin benefits from Microsoft’s intelligent security solutions.

Want to discuss your Microsoft requirements?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

• Efficient: Easy to use and producing great quality results at any scale, every product in the range is designed to save you time and money
• Secure: Enjoy peace of mind thanks to an extensive range of security options that comply with even the strictest IT policies
• Flexible: The Business Essentials support a range of devices, cloud services and connection types to provide an easier and more flexible way of working

In the technology-driven economy of today, your IT choices can directly impact the productivity of your workforce and consequently your company’s bottom line. The secret to getting your IT strategy right is to plan carefully and invest for choosing the right breed of PC for your business.

In partnership with Lenovo, we’ve outlined some of the top tips and things to look out for.

The appeal of consumer PCs

Many startups and emerging companies tend to pick consumer PC when buying for employees. This may happen for several reasons, including:

• Lack of awareness of the rigours of business computing
• Unclear of the differences between consumer PCs and business PCs
• Overemphasis on aesthetics or price

Most importantly, the seemingly more economical cost of consumer-grade devices make them appear to be the right choice, but the total cost of ownership (TCO) of PCs is far more critical, much like the cost of spares and service for a car over its lifetime.

According to Gartner, a significant bulk of costs associated with PCs appear months and years after purchase, often exceeding the original price. TCO for a PC includes purchase costs plus the cost of spares, service, and support needed to keep them operational over a defined lifetime. Reliability and durability are fundamental to ensuring lower TCO of PCs. Business PCs score much higher than consumer PCs on all factors especially.

Designed to enhance business benefits

Business PCs are purpose-built to perform reliably, efficiently and with ease, even in the most challenging work environments. They are better engineered and equipped with features that are not usually found or needed in consumer-grade devices.

Better productivity: Business PCs come with CPUs optimised for work-related software and tasks, and faster memory and hard drives to prevent performance bottlenecks. They can be customised to suit specific business functions and offer battery life that allows working for hours at a stretch. And better cooling technology ensures business PCs can run faster and for more extended periods of time, without incurring internal damage or performance losses from heat.

Better Reliability & Mobility: On the road, a business PC is visibly better at WiFi and mobile broadband connectivity because of superior antenna design. And because they are built of sturdy and light materials, like carbon fiber and metal alloys, they can withstand years of wear and tear. They also undergo a series of rigorous testing to ensure durability in any work environment and are equipped with rapid charging technology for 80% charge in just sixty-minutes, so you are not dependent on a power outlet.

Better Security and Manageability: Business PCs are quick and easy to deploy, and are designed with security in mind. They offer security features such as self-encrypting hard drives, anti-theft technology, biometric user authentication and more. More importantly, most business PCs come with a comprehensive portfolio of services that include 24/7 technical assistance, extended warranties and on-site visits, if necessary. Unlike most consumer PCs, business PCs can be serviced anywhere in the world.

Planning for the future

The stage at which your organisation is at also needs to be taken into account when selecting PCs, as the benefits that the PC should bring to your business and how it can help the company move forward are essential.

Startups:

PCs purchased at this stage of growth need to be sufficiently equipped to sustain the long hours of work necessary to take a business off the ground. Also, the PCs chosen should be very reliable and easy to use as most startups do not have full-time IT teams.
Look for MIL-spec reliability testing, extended warranties, and accidental damage protection.

High-growth businesses:

Businesses that sustain around 10 percent growth every year tend to be more sophisticated in their IT requirements. The workforce is more diversified and demanding. The PC solution should be matched to different working styles and tasks, and be upgradeable without hassle. Plus, a smartly selected set of accessories for the PC can help employees and the company derive the maximum value from its PC investment.
Look for hot-swap drives, batteries, graphics cards and tool-less access to memory.

Mature businesses:

Mature business need devices that don’t just cater to their current needs but can also meet future requirements. They should opt for the top of the line products that offer top performance and a future-ready feature set, reducing the need for frequent upgrades.
Look for the latest generation of CPU, operating system, display technology, and storage.

Once you have a clear understanding of your requirements, you are better equipped to look for business PCs that best fit your business needs.

From durability and security to customised features and applications for business, and a comprehensive service offering, a business PC will provide you with the confidence necessary to expand your business and focus on what matters – your future.

Check out this handy infographic to help you with your planning depending on the stage of maturity your business is at.

As Lenovo Platinum Solution Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the Lenovo range and how it could be effectively deployed in your business. To find out more give us a call on 01274 396 213 or email  and we’ll get back to you promptly.

It feels like everyone is talking about collaboration these days. How can businesses improve customer experiences, enhance cross-team engagement and increase productivity through collaboration and what tools need to be deployed to make that collaboration effective? 

In a recent survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, findings highlighted the two most important areas that collaboration needed to address within the workplace as delivering ‘effective team communication’ and ‘fostering collaboration both inside and outside an organisation.’ With teams becoming increasingly dispersed, the challenge for managers can be centred on making remote workers feel included and not isolated.

As part of the research, Robert Cross, a management professor at the University of Virginia, shared findings recently that showed a 50 percent increase in ‘collaborative intensity’ over the last 10 years, citing that today’s managers spend between 90 and 95 percent of their working hours in meetings or responding to emails compared to 60 to 65 percent little more than a decade ago.

So how does technology fit into this environment? We have an increasing global workforce whose office ‘fits in the palm of their hand’. As consumers, our mobile devices enable us to connect with people via a wide variety of apps, whether its Skype, Facebook, Snapchat or WhatsApp. We can manage our lives from our mobiles, even control the heating in our homes remotely and the business environment is starting to catch up. There is an increasing amount of business applications designed to improve our productivity such as OneNote, Office 365 or Evernote whilst there is a plethora of web based conferencing tools from Skype for Business to Google Hangout – we can now have virtual video meetings, bringing the right people into the meeting at a click of an icon rather than long laborious phone calls. Video conferencing can also mean that we can connect with more people than ever before, reducing the need for lengthy travel time to hour long meetings…

But with more time being spent in meetings than ever before, how can technology help improve the meeting experience? Interactive devices have exploded onto the market with the emergence of the ‘collaboration board’, a term used to describe large format, interactive displays that form the core of the collaboration hub, huddle or zone.

Improved productivity and greater work efficiency is a result of contribution and meeting room technology should facilitate this. We can collaborate every day on tablets, laptops and ‘individual’ screens but true and effective collaboration happens on a ‘shared’ screen, meaning a screen multiple users in the same room can view, absorb information from and contribute on then the workgroup can achieve better results.

The entrants into this new market include industry giants such as Microsoft with the Surface Hub, the Google Jam Board or the Cisco SparkBoard, all launching to the market in the past 18 months. These solutions provide users with an environment that enhances the work place by delivering a solution designed to improve communication within teams and customers or capture meeting findings and actions, increasing productivity. The downside to some of these platforms is that they are ‘locked down’ to the propriety software / applications pioneered by the manufacturers. That’s why the solution from Avocor is so unique, designed with ease of use in mind, they enhance cross-team collaboration and improve productivity by offering a simple user interface. Powered by an on-board internal Windows 10 PC, getting meetings started is straight forward by just hitting the recognisable Windows icon, gaining instant access to familiar applications available for mobile or desktop use.

Because Avocor promotes an open platform, the possibilities when considering a solution that is bespoke to customer requirements is endless. With a wealth of connectivity available including RS232 controls, the solution is the core of your integrated visual platform, enabling elements to be added to the solution as and when required. Adding a web camera and connecting via cloud based applications such as Skype for Business or Google Hangout can enhance the meeting experience for remote workers, making them feel more included whilst tools like Adobe Connect provides complete web conferencing solutions for webinars, online meetings and even virtual classrooms.

In short, we live in a digital age, that’s non-disputed. But we should remember that we work in one too and organisations need to provide their workforce with the best tools that have been designed to increase productivity and break down communication barriers. The collaboration tools that are chosen need to be easy to use and available on a variety of devices, facilitating people to be effective in their functional capability, regardless of location.

So, is your organisation ready for effective collaboration?

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Avocor specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation. There’s also a great range of resources available on the Avocor blog.

Give us a call on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form to discuss your requirements with us.

While modern technology offers amazing gains in productivity, you also need to make sure your organisation is protected from increasing security threats. Your organisational data is valuable, and needs to be protected.

Information loss is now the most expensive consequence of cyber-crime, closely followed by business disruption and loss of employee productivity.

Wouldn’t you feel more confident knowing your business assets are protected and secure?

A security solution that travels with your users

Enhanced mobility and more flexible user access can expose your business data to a wide variety of threats. Add the increased use of cloud applications and an explosion of data – it’s a real challenge!

Enterprise customers are choosing Microsoft 365 for unique security protection and intelligence. It keeps your organisation’s customer data, company data, and IP secure, so you can focus on what’s important.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise protects your information with: 

• Protection against malware and phishing attacks
• Flexible mobile device and app management controls
• Increased security of on-premise systems for cloud applications – both approved and unapproved
• Protection against data leakage
• Greater ability to respond to security incidents

Click here to learn more about the IT security company hidden in plain sight.

Want to discuss your Microsoft requirements?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Strawberries and cream, horses and carriages, the UK and good weather. Okay, not so much the last one maybe! But some things are just made for each other.

Canon toner and Canon printers are a perfect example. The two are engineered to work seamlessly together to provide you with the fast fusing performance and high quality print you expect with uncompromised results.

We’ve put together 5 good reasons to use Canon genuine consumables.

Quality

With original Canon cartridges you get the reassurance that each cartridge will provide exceptional performance. Refilled cartridges may not print to the same standard as new Canon cartridges because its internal components may be partially or fully worn out.

Manufacturing and assembling toner cartridges is a complex procedure involving several hundred processes. However Canon has developed a single automated production system which uses state-of-the-art production technology to create the high quality cartridges that our customers expect.

Avoid unsightly lines

The photosensitive drum unit is one of the most sensitive imaging components in the printer. New Canon cartridges ensure that toner does not accumulate on the drum and the fixing roller. This avoids unsightly lines, blurring or grey backgrounds and damage your printer. Original Canon toner guarantees the proper function of the drum unit, resulting in crisp, clean documents to represent your business in the best way each and every time.

Cleaner, greener offices

Canon’s exclusive roller-charging technology ensures ozone-free emissions. This clean technology is not harmful to human health or the environment and even makes the cartridge more compact as fewer parts are required. In addition all Canon toner and cartridges are non-hazardous. This means that their cartridges do not require special treatment or processing and can be recycled as part of your normal office waste.

Canon consumables contain more ink

Simple one this. The print capacity of counterfeit cartridges that Canon has obtained and tested, ranges from 28% to 69% of capacity compared to original Canon cartridges. Watch this short video to see more.

Don’t just take our or Canon’s word for it…

Allion Co., Ltd., an external verification agency, conducted tests to determine the difference in print quality between genuine Canon toner cartridges and third party cartridges. The report verifies the benefit of genuine Canon cartridges.

Talk to our team about the benefits of Canon genuine consumables for your business.

As Canon Authorised Partners, Complete IT Systems are able to offer you leading guidance on your organisation’s print environment to achieve best value for money, results and reliability.

Give us a call today on 01274 396 213 or email  to talk to one of our print specialist team.

There’s many great reasons, but we’ve selected 5 to get started!

1. Integrated security for Windows, Mac and mobile

   Sophos Cloud is the only integrated security solution that secures Windows, Mac computers and web traffic, and manages mobile devices. Cross-platform detection even identifies Windows threats residing on Mac systems, malicious Android apps on PCs, and more.

2. Quick and easy deployment

   Get up and running in 60 seconds, with no training required. Best practices are implemented by default for strong protection out of the box. The Sophos Cloud trial account provides all the features and functions without limitation. If you like what you see you can simply activate and keep your account.

3. User-centric pricing and policy enforcement

   A single license covers all of a user’s workstations and mobile devices. Policies are applied to users or user groups and will follow the user as they log in to new workstations or register new mobile devices.

4. Out of the box server protection

   Securing mission-critical servers is essential in today’s business environment and requires a different approach than securing end user devices. Sophos Cloud offers functions designed specifically to protect servers with automatic exclusion to ensure high performance and security.

5. Effective protection

   Sophos Cloud is based on the same proven technology that protects over 100 million devices worldwide. Advanced capabilities like HIPS, mobile device management and web control are brought together in one intuitive console, giving you powerful Sophos security with cloud simplicity. Protection stays current with automatic updates and real-time lookups of suspicious files over any Internet connection.

As Sophos Gold Solution Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the Intercept X solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

Request your no-obligation free trial via this link or call us on 01274 396 213.