The hidden costs of printing for SMBs

Calls for the paperless office have been sounding since as far back as the 1970s, yet with the average employee using 10,000 sheets of paper a year, it’s clear that printing remains a core business function that’s showing no sign of declining.

However, that doesn’t mean that the current model is working effectively. For many SMBs, print spending has got out of hand. 52% of print decision makers have absolutely no idea how much they’re spending on printing, and 44% of those that do are spending over £10,000 a year. Clearly something needs to change.

This white paper from our partners Brother UK looks at the ways you might unknowingly be wasting money on printing and provides expert tips on how you can cut down on costs and time.

▶ Download the white paper.

Find out more

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.

 

Why IT should care about Data Subject Access Requests

Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) were first introduced in 1998, and digital technology has made requesting them easier over time. Why should IT care about them?

In short, companies and organisations of all sizes need to know what they are, and what to do if you receive one.

The problem is that incoming DSARs can become a hot potato and bounce around HR, legal, IT, data protection, compliance and even marketing departments without clear accountability or ownership.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) publishes a useful guide on preparing for subject access requests, with one of the requirements being that you carry out a “reasonable search for the requested information”. On top of that, the timeline to respond is one month.

So even if the Data Protection Officer (DPO) is ultimately accountable for the request, without the right processes or tools in place, finding the requested information can be a minefield. No prizes for guessing the first point of call to get that information!

Enter IT!

And that’s usually where IT teams become involved in order to locate the personal data, while ensuring that other legal obligations are not infringed in doing so.

According to Kingsley Napley, “technical support is frequently required to identify and review data, and legal input may be needed.” For example, if an ex-employee asks to see all emails and correspondence they were copied on over a two year period, this could be hundreds of thousands of emails, not to mention direct chats and team collaborations in platforms such as Microsoft Teams or Google Workspaces.

How else can IT get sucked in?

As well as the normal jobs of keeping the lights on, ensuring that everyone has working devices, the network is secure, all files are safely backed up, and everything else that goes on in a day, there’s worse news for IT teams.

That’s because these kinds of data requests may not even be limited to DSAR cases. IT are increasingly being asked to help with locating data for internal complaints or enquiries such as:

  • One employee is accused of sexually harassing another via their organisation’s Microsoft Teams chats.
  • Instances in which an organisation’s emails are being sent to an unusual address.
  • A director suddenly starts getting lots of unsolicited calls from recruiters.
  • A firm’s customers start being approached by its rival’s salespeople
  • An industry news outlet gets hold of sensitive proprietary information about a company’s new product.
  • After one company acquires another, ensure employees aren’t still using old terminology from the acquired business.

Find out more

Cryoserver enables organisations to quickly respond to requests and solve situations such as:

  • Searching through conversations for keywords or information, and provide to your Legal team to use as evidence in a tribunal.
  • Find out if an employee is sharing sensitive data (a breach of GDPR) with an unauthorised individual.
  • Discover if an employee has emailed the director’s number to multiple contacts.
  • See if the company’s confidential customer contact list has been attached to an employee’s email.
  • Find evidence of information being leaked by a particular employee.
  • There’s a claim of sexual harassment and you’re tasked with finding the emails in question
  • HR has to come to you to find emails from a specific employee
  • And many more cases!

These issues might not be fully IT’s responsibility, but it’s in your interest to find the services and technology elements to help when incidents do arise, and limit the organisation’s exposure in the process.

▶ Find out more about Cryoserver’s solutions.

 

Why print modernisation part 2: Security

Security solutions for your users and devices in today’s hyper-connected world are vital to safeguard your business data – and documentation requires robust and flexible solutions, wherever your people are.

Putting the right print and scanning solutions helps businesses to navigate the frontiers of risk across cyberspace. Triple-layer security protects devices, provides document confidentiality and locks out infiltrators from accessing networks, giving organisations the confidence that their data remains protected.

5 reasons Brother is the secure print partner of choice for our customers

  • With triple-layer security built in as standard, Brother’s professional technology solutions put secure printing first.
  • Advanced document and device security gives you the confidence your business’s data remains protected.
  • End-to-end encryption and port-based access control allow your teams to connect to your print device network and share documents securely.
  • For added peace of mind, SecurePrint software further protects important documents.
  • Tackle your frontiers of risk and choose Brother’s print solutions to protect confidential information and lock out infiltrators from your business.

Find out more

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.

 

5 shortcomings of VPN

Are your users using VPNs to access documents, files, and applications remotely?

Unfortunately, legacy VPN products are falling short of performance and security standards. The result? Employees have been known to proactively install commercial VPNs that are not provided or sanctioned by their companies, to protect their devices and data.

Unfortunately, these well-intentioned efforts can pose an even greater security risk for their company than doing nothing at all. While the use of VPNs has increased drastically in recent decades, the challenges far outweigh the benefits, especially for organisations that use such services on a daily basis.

Recent research from our partners Barracuda has shown that VPNs compromise security through exposure of sensitive data, place limitations on data storage capabilities for free users, consume a device’s processing power (which can ultimately allow service providers to sell bandwidth for profit), and reduce internet speeds overtime.

▶ Read this article from Barracuda to find out the 5 shortcomings of VPN.

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.

Printing technology solutions for modern work

In recent years, there’s been a wave of evolution across the working world, with businesses’ reliance on technology in the workplace increasing rapidly.

Within organisations, people need to access and share information more easily, collaborate more effectively and streamline time-consuming processes.

Complete IT Systems’ customers of all shapes and sizes and in all kinds of industries are coming to us to help them solve challenges from enabling hybrid work to modern print requirements – and everything in between!

Print and scan solutions play a key part in this working shift. Brother’s devices, combined with market leading solutions and best-in-class support, are designed to help your organisation operate seamlessly in any setting.

Watch this video to see how Brother’s print technology is evolving to support ever-changing ways of working.

Find out more

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.

 

The MGM cyber attack and your business

The MGM network was recently hit through a social engineering-style cyber attack. After gaining entry, the threat actor escalated their privileges to achieve administrator privileges in OKTA and even global administrator privileges to MGM’s Azure tenant, collecting and dumping passwords along the way.

In response to the breach, MGM unsuccessfully attempted to shut down network access to sensitive devices. After electing to not pay the ransom, the hackers launched BlackCat ransomware to cause widespread destruction and disruption.

▶ Read this article from Barracuda to find out the recommendations for your business to solve increasingly creative and aggressive ransomware attacks.

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.

Revolutionise data management and cut costs

Virtual machines (VMs) have transformed the way businesses manage their IT infrastructure. But how can you continue to optimise your environment?

This article from our partners Tintri shows how to revolutionise your data management and cut costs.

With virtualisation, companies can run multiple virtual machines on a single physical server, which has dramatically improved server utilisation and reduced costs associated with hardware and energy consumption. However, with the increased number of virtual machines, IT complexity has also grown, and storage has become a major bottleneck. Traditional storage systems were not designed to work with virtualised environments, leading to inefficiencies and high costs.

Enter data management solutions like VM-aware storage – which simplifies IT complexity and reduces costs versus the traditional tech stack.

▶ Read more (redirects you to the Tintri website)

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.

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.

Watching your language is easier said than done

You might have heard that 70% of organisational change initiatives fail. The good news is we have some advice on how to prevent this one from doing so!

Fortunately, your HR team can drive and manage change with software that monitors emails, instant messages and attachments. You can read about this shortly, but first, let’s go back a step:

The Harvard Business School defines organisational change as “the action a business takes to change any of its underlying components, such as processes, culture, people, product, infrastructure, or technology.”

In this article, our colleagues Cryoserver look at the hot topic of cultural change. Many HR departments are striving to promote equality, diversity and inclusion, and eliminate toxic behaviour and language. Not only is organisational culture important from HR and legal perspectives; it also affects your corporate and brand identities and ultimately your bottom line too.

▶ Read more.

Adjusting to new ways of paying for storage

Changing market conditions and IT strategies are quickly changing the way businesses use and pay for data storage. And hybrid cloud adoption has led to growing demand for utility-based IT as opposed to legacy cash purchases and leases.

As a result, many tech companies now offer elastic pricing models depending on what storage capacity is used. The downside for IT teams is with so many new models available, it can be a minefield trying to figure out the best plan for your budget.

Check out this 3 minute video to find out how IBM can solve some of the dilemma.

▶ Watch now.

Malicious HTML attachments doubles – are you prepared?

The security industry has been highlighting the cybercriminal misuse of HTML for years — and evidence suggests it remains a successful and popular attack tool.

Last year Barracuda reported that around one-in-five (21%) of all HTML attachments scanned in May 2022 were malicious. A year on, that figure has more than doubled – 45.7% of scanned HTML files were found to be malicious a year later.

▶ Read this article from Barracuda to find out the top HTML threats, and prepare your business accordingly.

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.