Helping empower tech to go green!

Complete IT Systems support our customers and suppliers by committing to sustainability targets by changing the ways we work.

As part of this commitment, we are proud to be a signatory of Techies Go Green. Founded in March 2021, it has the aim of bringing together people and companies from across the IT and Tech industry committed to decarbonising their businesses and making them green and verifiably sustainable.

Techies Go Green

We aim to:

  • Encourage and train our staff to work sustainably and efficiently
  • Minimise the use of energy where possible in our offices
  • Digitise our core processes to reduce and eliminate the need for printing
  • Discourage single use plastics in our offices in addition to recycling responsibly, packing and equipment. Anything we send out of our office is in reused packaging where possible. We have recycle bins at the office locations where we separate waste to each bin
  • Utilise virtual platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom where possible instead of onsite meetings
  • Encourage our staff to take public transport where possible
  • Using modern, energy efficient IT equipment in our own offices and encouraging our customers to do the same

You can also read more in our Green Pledge.

The energy crisis and your business

In energy terms, the UK and the rest of Europe is still facing deep uncertainty regards to price and supply.

This unsettling scenario is as a result of major current geopolitical events, a rebound from the economic slowdown created by COVID-19, and the long-term decision of many European countries to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, while slowly transitioning to renewable energy sources.

While it’s true to say that each country within Europe has a unique profile in terms of reliance across the energy-mix, and different levels of energy supply resilience, the region is in a precarious position, where it cannot guarantee sufficient levels of energy to power itself. Bloomberg Europe recently reported that power outages are ‘the next threat for the continent’. Even as we move out of winter and into the warmer months, businesses still need to be sure of supply and cost.

The UK’s National Grid is talking about ‘three-hour power cuts ’, while Norway is ‘set to curb its electricity exports’ . So, with already stretched energy supplies and such uncertainty in the energy sector, it’s no wonder our region is bracing itself for volatility.

What does this mean for businesses that rely on IT resilience – for safety, comfort and business continuity to keep IT environments running? The impact of power outages is not to be understated, with power fluctuations resulting from an unstable power grid capable of causing disruption and even damage to office computing devices, and critical IT applications within small and large businesses.

A full power outage could cause disruption to critical smart home functionality for example, as well as
severely hamper critical IT applications that businesses rely on in their daily operations. Simply put, power quality and availability ensures comfort and safety for homes, and business continuity for businesses of all sizes.

What’s the solution?

Implementing an uninterruptable power supply strategy can underpin your business operations and give your customers, staff and shareholders the confidence of business uptime. Schneider Electric is a leading UPS manufacturer that gives IT professionals access to a broad portfolio of UPS solutions all designed to protect critical IT appliances and data in homes and across businesses. Customers can also benefit from Schneider’s Green Premium™ certification guarantee, meaning complete compliance, transparency and higher environmental performance.

Here’s a short introduction into how you can ensure clean, efficient power at all times, improve productivity and resilience, and pay less for your power.

Cybersecurity advice for SMBs

Cybersecurity can feel overwhelming for SMBs, for they have to manage issues related to data security and integrity, avoid breaches, and understand and implement the protection measures required to efficiently deal with cyber threats.

Sometimes, this responsibility falls on SMB owners, who often must fill several roles at once. Otherwise it falls on overstretched IT teams looking for support to manage issues related to data security and integrity, avoid breaches, and understand and implement the protection measures required to efficiently deal with cyber threats.

This whitepaper provides guidance on the latest cyber security dangers, defence strategies, and best practices, with a particular focus on prevention rather than remediation, that should be followed by SMB leaders and their employees from all over the world.

▶ Read more in this whitepaper from our partners Heimdal

Proud sponsors of the One in a Million charity lunch

Complete IT Systems were again proud to be partners of the ‘One in a Million’ charity lunch for its 7th year last week.

The event featured 165 local leaders and business people providing their insights into the future of Bradford, with Wayne Jacobs, Chief Executive and co-founder of One In A Million, opening the afternoon’s proceedings by welcoming guests, speakers and sponsors and giving an update on the charity and our quest to rebuild ‘The Arc’ community centre on Canterbury estate, where OIAM has been operating for over 17 years.

The lunch also featured updates on the Bradford City of Culture 2025 Bid and its impact on the local economy. The Bradford Chamber of Commerce, also presented. “We are proud to be long-time supporters of One in a Million, and the lunches are always a great day for charity and all involved”, said Ben Gregg, Sales Director of Complete IT Systems. The ‘Building for Success Bradford 2023’ is a theme is really in line with our own goals for the year, and we were proud to be part of the day as well as making some new connections at the heart of the community in Bradford”.

About One in a Million

The charity engages with children and young people, aged between 5-19 years old, living predominantly in disadvantaged communities of Bradford.

Through Sports, Arts and Enterprise themed programmes, they deliver formal and informal education to break cycles of deprivation over their young lives, valuing and celebrating their uniqueness, letting them know they are ‘one in a million’. Complete IT Systems are extremely proud to be a part of it!

Their vision is child-centric placing them at the heart of all that we do. And so are their core values; compassion, honesty, integrity and excellence – they are the DNA that runs throughout the charity shaping the culture and ethos. They believe that every child is unique and valued.

Read more about One in a Million on this link.

 

Assess your organisation’s cyber resilience

With cyber threats increasing in number and quality, it’s important to know how prepared you are. Find out where your organisation stands on threat prevention, detection and response by answering a few questions and then in only 7 minutes, download your free personalised guide with recommendations from the experts at Bitdefender.

How does it work?
  1. The interactive questions will help assess your level of cyber resilience maturity and identify the security gaps based on the following criteria: risk management, prevention, detection and response.
  2. After taking the assessment, you will receive a dynamic and personalised report to identify your security pain points along with recommendations from our experts. Share it with your team and management to communicate how you can become more cyber resilient.
  3. Your personalised report will help you understand where you are in your journey to improve your cyber resilience. It identifies your cybersecurity blind spots, provides recommendations on how to address them, and shares guidance on how to address your overall cyber security challenges.

 

Want to find out more?

As Bitdefender 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.

Patch management best practices

Patch management (aka update management) is the process of distributing and deploying software updates. Here’s everything you need to know about it, and how to use it to best secure your business.

Patch management involves the acquisition, review, and deployment of patches to an IT infrastructure. A patch is a piece of software code that improves an installed program – you can literally think about it as a “bandage” applied to software.

Every time a security flaw or bug is discovered or the program’s functionality needs to be enhanced, software developers create a patch to address these aspects. Patches can be deployed to your entire infrastructure including software/operating systems, routers, IoT equipment, servers, and more.

▶ Read more in this blog from our partners Heimdal

5 steps to securing remote users’ devices

Although remote work offers flexibility and productivity advantages, it can also pose significant security challenges to IT teams. These concerns cover the technology and applications themselves and users’ security awareness – not to mention cyber attacks themselves.

Worse still, sophisticated attackers often need to breach only one device to access an entire organisation’s network. This can be achieved through a phishing attack, or via a vulnerability in an unpatched network. In this event, cyber attacks can lead to exposure across the organisation’s whole network before a full-scale data breach ensues.

Five remote work security & usability challenges

These are some of the top challenges facing our customers and UK firms in general.

Connecting to an office network
  • Potential company network exposure (if connecting unknowingly with a compromised device).
  • Connectivity and speed challenges taking a toll on productivity.
Device security challenges
  • Outdated device’s operating system (OS) version is more prone to known and exploitable vulnerabilities.
  • Jailbroken or compromised devices.
Network security challenges
  • Lack of visibility into who’s accessing what set of resources, using which devices from where and how long.
  • Compromised devices can “teleport” to the network. Lack of remediation steps upon failed access. Challenges supporting multi-cloud connection to access resources.
Phishing and other cyber threats
  • Aims to steal personal data, work or financial account credentials, or any other valuable data.
  • It appears to be sent from a reliable source and usually contains malicious links or attachments.
  • This leads to clicking on links that steal accounts credentials or installing fraudulent software.
VPN challenges
  • VPNs are struggling to meet the demands of remote and hybrid working. They:
  • Do not enforce corporate device security and compliance requirements.
  • Expose company network by providing access not only to an intended resource but to the entire company network.
  • Do not support role-based access.
  • Don’t protect from web-based attacks such as credential theft, phishing, drive-by downloads, or malvertising.

For remote work and employees to thrive, it’s essential to ensure fast and secure access to company data and resources. Innovative rather than outdated security practices are critical to support the new way of work, where security empowers employees and companies by enhancing productivity and collaboration.

📄This eBook from Barracuda shows the way.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

Merry Christmas from Complete IT Systems 🎄 🎁

 

The Complete IT Systems team would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers, partners, suppliers and the local community a very happy Christmas and a happy new year! See you all in 2023!

How modern is your workspace?

Companies are continuously innovating to win new customers and drive growth. But are the tangible aspects of your business culture keeping pace? Can you effectively improve workplace culture and support hybrid working with technology?

UMA was built in response to the need for workplaces to innovate and digitally transform to improve employee user experiences, support hybrid working strategies, connect workforce collaboration tools, reduce real estate costs and drive operational efficiency.

To do so, you need to consider the following questions:
  • How can you simplify employee access to information, or the day-to-day processes such as getting a meeting organised?
  • How can you better understand how your workplace resources are being utilised and optimise your real estate effectively using data?
  • How can you ensure your employees are healthy and productive in the work environment?
  • How can you connect and manage existing and new workplace audio visual device and internet-of-things sensors across all of your offices?

In short, you can build a safe, flexible, managed workspace fit for the modern era. It can integrate managing hybrid working, manage car parking, improved environmental monitoring and other important information about your premises. Why? Improved employee experience, staff retention, and return on investment on your facilities.

How it works

UMA is a PropTech that helps workplaces digitally transform, improve user experiences, collaboration, reduce costs and carbon footprint.

The software addresses all these questions – and more. The UMA team is passionate about user experience and human-centered design, the use of automation, data-driven business intelligence to improve the spaces for employees and employers, and importantly to deliver a tangible return on investment. Find out more at #askUMA, or view this short video:

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of UMA specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

Workplace Booking Solutions Logo

 

 

Are your applications potential trojan horses?

Find out if your web applications have security flaws with the Barracuda Vulnerability Manager for free. Use this standalone, no-cost service to get a comprehensive report that outlines any vulnerabilities uncovered and provides recommendations for remediating them.

  • Scan for web application security flaws such as those on the OWASP Top 10.
  • Get a comprehensive report with remediation recommendations.
  • No installation, 2 minutes to set up, easy to use, and completely free.

Don’t give cybercriminals a chance to exploit hidden vulnerabilities. With Barracuda Vulnerability Manager you can get a customised report in minutes. The Complete IT Systems team can then work with you to review the findings and take the necessary steps to remediate.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.