Building user cybersecurity awareness

 

In a series of forthcoming articles and resources, Complete IT Systems and Kaspersky will be guiding your business through how to build your users’ cybersecurity awareness.

Educate, protect and empower your users

According to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, a staggering 90% of cyber-incidents are caused by human error*. Let that sink in for a moment.

Thanks to advanced phishing filters and firewalls, many organisations have better security protection. So today, the first point of vulnerability in the cybersecurity chain is your own users. They provide an entry point into IT systems, with human error now accounting for the majority of cyber incidents.

Your organisation could lose significant revenue, simply through a lack of security awareness. In fact, 82% of employers report a shortage of cybersecurity skills. Educating your users about cybersecurity issues now – to change their attitudes and behavior – will protect your business and IT systems.

The freedom to perform

While the South American jungle is / may be an exaggeration, the fact is that IT departments’ old comfort blankets of secure office LAN networks and VPNs are becoming more and more obsolete.

Great technology exists in many companies, so people must have the cybersecurity skills to use it confidently. The right training delivers that, and also increases security awareness amongst your employees, boosts morale and contributes to a better work culture.

Just like other training, learning cybersecurity skills is less effective if courses are lengthy, technical and uninspiring. Security awareness training should be continuous, with a clear programme structure, and smaller step-by-step lessons that stimulate the necessary behavior and motivate your employees to detect and report real attacks.

Giving your users the freedom to perform will have widespread benefits for your business – well-trained employees safeguard your company by reducing security incidents, improving uptime and efficiency across your organisation.

Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform (ASAP).

With Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform (ASAP), you benefit from more effective computer-based interactive training, which can significantly decrease the number of human-related cybersecurity incidents in an organisation.

Want to find out more?

As Kaspersky 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 or request a free trial, please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Check out this short video to see ASAP in action!

*References

https://go.kaspersky.com/Awareness_Guide_Landing_Page.html – Analysis of data breach reports filed with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Tintri IT Professionals Survey – get a £25 Amazon Gift Card

Are you keeping up with the infrastructure requirements for the digital age? What will you need to design an Intelligent Infrastructure that will support Machine Learning, AI, Big Data and automation?
 
The pace of innovation is accelerating; new technologies, environments, and applications. IT Managers must anticipate and implement solutions that enable and drive future productivity and harness the power of data to deliver the best experience to their customers.
 
Help us understand where you are in creating an Intelligent Infrastructure to support the demands of the future by taking our 1-minute survey and we will give you a £25 Amazon Gift Card.
 
This short survey is only intended for UK or Ireland-based IT professionals who are responsible for researching, evaluating and purchasing IT Infrastructure. Please enter a few details on this link, and if you qualify we’ll send you the survey to complete for your £25 Amazon Gift Card.

Want to find out more?

As a Tintri Partner, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business. More information is available on our Tintri solutions page. 

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.

4 steps to creating a wellness programme with Fitbit Care

All good companies know that employees who are physically active are healthier and more productive, and wellness programmes can play an enormous role in driving physical activity and health in the workplace.

Download this guidebook from our partners Fitbit to get started on your firm’s wellness programme today.

Great savings on Fitbit this holiday season

It’s that time of year again already (almost!).

As more and more companies look set to postpone their Christmas parties, Complete IT Systems and Fitbit are offering a way to help spread the festive feeling this holiday season. With this, employees can enjoy a happy and healthy Christmas – even without a party!

This includes fantastic savings off the full Fitbit range of devices, with which employers can save on the latest smartwatches or by gifting entry-level tracker devices as rewards for employees’ efforts throughout the year.

FREE challenge dashboard included

Fitbit are also offering access to their challenge dashboard for free – letting employers set bespoke challenges by team, department, or even country to create a bit of healthy competition.

Introducing the latest Fitbit devices

In September, Fitbit launched three exciting new products; Fitbit Sense™, Fitbit Versa 3™, and Fitbit Inspire 2™. Each device contains Fitbit’s most innovative technology to date, helping people unlock more information about their health.

Request your handy comparison sheet to evaluate which Fitbit device is right for you!

Find out more

As Fitbit 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 Fitbit contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

How can NHS Trusts juggle increasing services with shrinking budgets?

Health trusts and services are being asked to deliver and support an increasing number of services through IT. Probably more than any other sector within Public services, the NHS is being asked to provide a more business to consumer approach to the patients they care for. This must be achieved within the confines of an aggressive savings agenda and shrinking budgets.

What does that mean?

In short, it means that a health trust needs to support and deliver multiple applications securely to a wide range of health professionals. In order to deliver savings and a supportive IT environment health trusts will have to completely rethink how their technology is delivered to end users.

How can Droplet Computing help?

  • Challenge the expensive desktop deployment solutions currently deployed by health trusts.
  • Droplet Computing containers enable health trusts to develop an application platform configured to end user need.
  • Breath new life into “fat client” software by delivering via Droplet Computing containers
  • Remove applications from the underlying OS enabling clinical hardware (such as an MRI scanner) reliant on an older OS, without worrying about an unsupported OS affecting application functionality.
  • Enabling staff to access patient critical applications on any device even offline – saving on hardware and enabling staff to work offsite and with patients in the home.

Use case

Health workers who are required to visit patients require an IT environment that is robust, flexible and cost effective.

Droplet Computing enables staff to use hardware such as the Chromebook which, in comparison to the cost of a tablet or laptop, is far more competitively priced and offers greater battery life. Droplet Computing containers effectively turns a Chromebook into a PC. The heath trust could purchase three Chromebooks for the price of a single laptop.

To see how Droplet Computing containers can help transform the way you deliver healthcare applications today, contact us for a free trial, or demonstration and redefine your application delivery.

The offline working offered by Droplet Computing will also enable staff working offsite, out of connectivity, to still provide a service to customers.

Want to find out more?

As Droplet Computing Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business. Read more on our central Droplet page here.

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.

6 ways to improve IT asset tracking

As your IT infrastructure adds more IT assets, it is hard to manually add new ones and update any changes in the old ones. Be it the software installed/upgraded or a hardware change. A simple hardware change, when tried to update manually, can become a very challenging task, this is when IT asset tracking becomes critical.

ManageEngine AssetExplorer helps you in tracking your hardware and software automatically. It not only automatically scans and discovers your IT assets but also updates every time there is a change in any of the IT assets.

ManageEngine AssetExplorer helps you in 6 ways:

  1. Hardware inventory tracking
  2. Software inventory tracking
  3. Associated vendors and contracts
  4. Managing asset groups
  5. Asset relationship
  6. Asset history

Software and Hardware inventory tracking

Track all the your IT assets – software and hardware – in your IT infrastructure. The hardware that can be identified with ManageEngine AssetExplorer are workstations, printers, routers, switches & any devices with an IP address and connected to the network and some of the OS that are discovered – Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac, IBM AIX and VMWare ESX/ESXi. The software inventory is also scanned across the network devices and listed in AssetExplorer. The dashboard has easy-to-understand charts that gives you the inventory detail at a glance.

Scan, Discover & Update – Automatically

Any mundane task automated is a blessing. As an asset manager, it would be great for you to have a tool that automatically scans you network, discovers IT assets (hardware and software) and updates whenever there is a change in any of IT assets. ManageEngine AssetExplorer has a number of ways to perform those tasks.

Tracking Ownership, Status & Total Cost of Assets

Get clear picture of the assets you own, the ownership details and its history. AssetExplorer accurately maintains a history of the asset, that includes ownership historyand changes during the asset’s lifecycle. The support and maintenance costs incurred by the asset helps you understand the real cost of the asset – Total Cost of Ownership. This helps in forecasting and making purchase decisions.

Manage Contracts and License Agreements

The tracking of IT assets gives you details on the contracts, software licenses and vendors associated with that particular asset. You can also enable notifications to specific users before the contract or license agreement period of the asset expires, thus making sure that you do not forget to renew your contracts.

Group Assets for better and easier understanding

AssetExplorer helps you create focused asset groups for better management and control. You can create Static or dynamic groups based on asset properties and for ease of management. With static groups you can choose assets with different properties. Dynamic groups help you to group asset based on specific criteria. Tracking IT assets as a group gives you a better understanding of a group behaviour, be it department/geography/asset type wise.

Asset Relationships – CMDB

Establishing relationships with other assets is an useful value add to simply tracking IT assets. CMDB gives you a good understanding of the various relationship of an asset in your IT infrastructure. This helps when you are troubleshooting an incident or a problem. Knowing the relationships is the key to carrying out root cause analysis for a problem and rectifying it efficiently and quickly.

In short

ManageEngine Desktop Central manages over 7 million endpoints with a happy customer base of 12,000+ organisations, and over 85% of customers renew the product annually. With a complete endpoint management and security solution in place, Desktop Central will watch over all the endpoints in the your organisation.

Take it for a test drive

Request your 30 day free trial today, and manage unlimited endpoints.

Want to find out more?

As ManageEngine 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.

Small business technology solutions for startups

Starting a business is not easy, especially in the current climate. But we know that there are still entrepreneurs creating and innovating, and rolling their sleeves up even despite the challenges that the pandemic is causing to business.

Now more than ever, the journey of an entrepreneur is riddled with challenges and stumbling blocks. There are deep-pocketed Goliaths to stand up to, aggressive competition to stand out from, and an increasingly demanding group of consumers to please. And for every problem, there’s an ocean of solutions to choose from. Without the right guidance, it is easy to lose focus from what you set out to do. You need someone you can trust, to empower and guide you every step of the way.

Complete IT Systems, Lenovo and AMD are here to help you discover the right solutions for your technology needs, and grow with your business every step of the way.

Technology as a foundation for your startup

To ensure sustained growth of your business, it is imperative you consider technology, not just as an enabler, but the bedrock on which your business is built. The gains you’ll make from building your business in the right way are immense, and range from increased productivity, to image, to data mining, and everything else in between.

There are three aspects that you need to be mindful of while developing the technology strategy for your business:

  • Your must-have technology
  • Specialised technology for your profession or industry
  • Support and assistance to fuel success

Lenovo’s guide helps take you through these steps, and helps you build your foundations in the right way.

 

Must-have technology

New and emerging businesses need rock-solid IT infrastructure as the foundation of their survival and growth. The requirements for IT may vary, depending on the nature of the business as well as the stage of development your business is in. But there are certain must-haves which no business can operate without. Watch this short video to find out more.

Want to find out more?

As Lenovo Platinum PC Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on how the devices and solutions and 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.

This article was originally posted here.

The workplace of the future is here now. Are you onboard?

Okay, so we might not be living in sci-fi movies just yet, but offices around the world are undoubtedly undergoing a revolution. Workplaces are transforming into collaboration spaces where no one has a fixed desk, computers are no longer tied to a single user and boardrooms are virtual.

Companies are embracing flexible working. Employees are expected to work remotely rather than being in the office from nine to five, and senior management are happy to let their middle managers decide who needs to be in the office when.

Even putting the COVID crisis aside, it’s estimated that half of UK businesses are now fully embracing flexible working, allowing employees to work from both home and an office. The Working Anywhere report by Lancaster University’s Work Foundation estimates that 70% of employees now have the opportunity to work remotely, and this will result in big changes for businesses as they look for ways to make the office accommodate everyone.

“The evidence is showing a clear trend towards a more flexible way of working in the UK as the hurdles are overcome by fresh innovations in technology and people management,” says Cathy Garner, director of the Work Foundation.

The office space itself

As fewer employees need a desk, businesses can downsize their office space. Small businesses can cut costs by only paying for office space when it’s needed, while larger businesses can either rent out space to smaller companies or relocate into a smaller office – significantly reducing overheads in both cases.

The design of these office spaces is changing too. Instead of sprawling offices with cubicles, which contribute nothing to productivity, organisations can instead use a co-working space or open up enclosed spaces to make the environment feel more collaborative.

Configurable desks feature in some offices, allowing employees to move them around according to whether they need to work collaboratively or singularly, and outside areas will feature heavily, offering workers a breath of fresh air when things start to get stuffy.

If businesses take note of a study that revealed buildings with better ventilation and ‘green’ features improved the cognitive abilities of workers, sophisticated heating and ventilation networks could feature heavily in office design of the future.

Smart lighting adapts during the day to ensure it’s always the most efficient for employees to get work done, and sensors will monitor the temperature, carbon dioxide levels and humidity, ensuring employee comfort is optimal.

Beacons can be used to log an employee’s attendance from a health and safety point of view, checking them into the building as soon as they walk through the door and logging them off as soon as they leave.

Office hardware of the future

It’s unlikely we’ll see laptops and desktops replaced by the virtual, holographic screens from Minority Report. Nor is it likely all desktops will be replaced by tablets and smartphones. What is changing, however, is the way ‘standard’ hardware is used.

Desks are starting to be equipped with computers that employees can simply log into and see the content from their computer at home – or mobile or tablet.

In the boardroom, tables and chairs are being replaced by huge screens such as Microsoft Surface Hub, allowing staff to work collaboratively from home, in a cafe, or with a client from another office.

If employees need to present, they can beam content from their connected device – be it a mobile, tablet, or computer. Because everything is stored on one single account, no one needs to carry bulky equipment with them.

The design of devices is also changing to accommodate portability and flexibility. Check out more information and a video on our Lenovo ranges with AMD Ryzen processors via this link.

Office software of the future

Software is the area most likely to experience a shake-up within the office of the future. As teams become more distributed around the world, they need to stay in contact and work as though they are right next to each other.

If businesses opt for the shared desk route, employees will simply arrive at their desk, log in and be able to access everything on a standard computer using a virtual desktop. All files and folders will be on shared drives and accessible from anywhere.

Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams accommodate 24/7 communication, helping colleagues and teams stay in touch, share resources and ideas, making the working day more productive (click here to get FREE Teams licenses for your users).

It will also take the headache out of IT management and shadow IT as all equipment is treated equally and individual users won’t be able to install non-approved apps onto the communal computers.

“The next five years will see even more change than the past five years,” Peter Hirst, associate dean of executive education at MIT Sloan School of Management, told Inc.

“Over the next five years, it is hard to imagine that the display, processing, interface and communication capabilities of these wearable devices won’t match and likely surpass what we can do with today’s tablets and phablets (phone/tablet hybrids).”

One thing’s for sure: as more employees embrace flexible working, employers need to ensure their workers can be more productive wherever they opt to work. And if they do decide to head into the office, they must have all the resources required to get the job done.

Want to find out more?

As Lenovo Platinum PC Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on how the devices and solutions and 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.

This article was originally posted here.

References

http://www.think-progress.com/blog/innovation-and-entrepreneurship/put-digital-at-the-heart-of-a-flexible-workplace-strategy/

http://www.theworkfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/398_Working-Anywhere.pdf

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/innovative-companies-changing-workplace#sm.000oyzuvf1031ddvup822dcydpruy

http://naturalleader.com/thecogfxstudy/study-1/view-the-reports/

https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-surface-hub/en-gb

http://www.think-progress.com/blog/performance-and-productivity/working-around-clock-company-always-on/

https://www.inc.com/comcast/your-office-in-2020-a-glimpse-into-the-future.html

 

Every IT technician’s go-to remote access solution

COVID-19 is transforming the way organisations all over the world work in the wake of a viral outbreak. Remote work is on the rise, and the traditional work environment may soon become a thing of the past. Currently, companies of all sizes are urging employees to work from home by implementing various remote work policies.

Unfortunately, only 30 percent of businesses are prepared to embrace remote work. For effective remote work, organisations should turn to their best ally possible—remote access solutions.

Step forward ManageEngine’s Remote Access Plus: Your essential tool for remote work. With it, your organisation and IT team can stay more connected than ever with Remote Access Plus, and embrace remote work like never before!

Every IT technician’s go-to remote access solution

Here’s how Remote Access Plus prevents your business from taking a plunge during this crisis:

Collaborate with other technicians

  1. Seek expert guidance from adept technicians and resolve issues in no time.
  2. Invite novice employees to learn from an ongoing remote session.
  3. Shadow end users during a remote session, and intervene if need be.

Leverage multiple communication channels

  1. Take remote collaboration to the next level with built-in chat options.
  2. Initiate a voice/video call to procure additional information from end users dynamically.
  3. Keep end users in the loop on every action that’s been taken on their endpoints.

Bolster remote troubleshooting

  1. Automatically record remote sessions for auditing and educational purposes.
  2. Troubleshoot multiple active monitors connected to the target machine.
  3. Remote power options to wake, shut down, restart, lock, and hibernate machines.

Transfer files during a live session

  1. Get past the traditional file transfer protocols with a two-way file transfer across endpoints.
  2. Expedite your troubleshooting process with all the necessary files during a remote session.
  3. Transfer files seamlessly, whether its a workgroup-setup or a domain-based setup.

Hassle-free remote diagnosis

  1. Remotely manage hardware devices such as drivers, printers, etc.
  2. Monitor applications, processes, services, and startup programs dynamically.
  3. Control Windows Registry, and remotely access Command Prompt.

In short

ManageEngine Desktop Central manages over 7 million endpoints with a happy customer base of 12,000+ organisations, and over 85% of customers renew the product annually. With a complete endpoint management and security solution in place, Desktop Central will watch over all the endpoints in the your organisation.

Click here to read more including a short demo video, or here for further technical details about the solution.

Take it for a test drive

Request your 30 day free trial today, and manage unlimited endpoints.

Want to find out more?

As ManageEngine 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.

15 reasons to use DesktopCentral to manage your endpoints

With over 15 years of expertise in the IT management industry, ManageEngine Desktop Central has understood the needs in the market, and developed the product to defend cyber-threats. We’ve put together 15 reasons to help you understand why Desktop Central is unique, and the leading choice for endpoint management solutions.

  • Desktop Central enables you to manage any device in your network from anywhere at any instant with the most minimalistic and easy-to-use UI.
  • Desktop Central is compliant with major regulations like GDPR, PCI, CIS, ISO, VPAT, HIPAA and RBI compliance.
  • Network-neutral architecture enables administrators to manage endpoints across Local Area Network, Wide Area Network, endpoints in Demilitarized Zone, and even closed network environment. Endpoints in different network environments like Windows Active Directory, Windows Workgroups, or Novell eDirectory are also supported.
  • Desktop Central enables complete PC life cycle management and management of on-the-go devices. The overall view of the network endpoints is given in the product dashboard.
  • A complete end-to-end patching solution for Windows and other third party applications. From detecting network vulnerabilities, testing and approving missing patches, to proceed with immediate patching solutions or completely automate the patching process, Desktop Central provides a comprehensive patching solution.
  • Over 50+ configurations and 200+ scripts across Windows, Mac and Linux are available for the end-user to proceed with efficient device management.
  • With 6000+ predefined templates available to deploy applications, software deployment is made simple with easily customization capabilities. The Self-Service Portal feature allows the end-user to choose to either install or uninstall the required application.
  • The network assets will be continuously monitored through the data obtained by Inventory and file scan in Desktop Central. The Enterprise can also monitor the software usage in the network and block applications whose usage is prohibited in the particular devices. The secure USB feature will allow one to keep a look on the portable storage devices.
  • To help the end-user and to resolve help-desk tickets which require technician support, one can use the in-built remote control tool. Loaded with functionalities like screen recording, voice and video call facilities, multi-technician support, and remote file transfer. Desktop Central paves a way for remote troubleshooting and seamless management.
  • Desktop Central can be integrated with prominent help-desk products like ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceDesk Plus Cloud, Jira, Zendesk, ServiceNow and Spiceworks to make the IT admin have transparent view of data across products. Other integration like Asset Explorer, Analytics Plus and Browser Security Plus is also supported by Desktop Central.
  • Desktop Central can image and deploy OS for a new machine through the OS deployment feature. In the current trend, Enterprises are looking for standalone OS deployment products to help in the Windows 7 to Windows 10 migration process. Customized deployment templates, hardware independent templates, and flexible boot options enable convenient OS deployment in Enterprises.
  • Desktop Central supports modern management for Windows 10 and Mac devices.
  • Desktop Central has over 100+ out-of-the-box reports which will provide detailed insights on the actions performed in the endpoints. Custom reports can also be generated according to one’s needs and preferences.
  • An IT admin with the Desktop Central mobile app can manage all the endpoints from across the globe. One can deploy critical patches, obtain complete hardware and software reports and even take remote control of the endpoints in the network. Zia, the virtual assistant in Desktop Central can carry out all your tasks through voice recognition.
  • Additional offerings like secure gateway service, fail over service and multi-language support ensure efficient endpoint management of the network.

In short

ManageEngine Desktop Central manages over 7 million endpoints with a happy customer base of 12,000+ organisations, and over 85% of customers renew the product annually. With a complete endpoint management and security solution in place, Desktop Central will watch over all the endpoints in the your organisation.

Click here to read more including a short demo video, or here for further technical details about the solution.

Take it for a test drive

Request your 30 day free trial today, and manage unlimited endpoints.

Want to find out more?

As ManageEngine 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.