Base Connect

08/06/2023

02/06/2023

Note for Mac users 👇

02/06/2023

Compliance & Protection: Cyber Security

Challenge:
The cyber security landscape is always evolving, and more mature threats emerging. In the last few years, cyber-crime has increased by 600%. Despite being the most at risk of a cyber-attack, most SMBs are not adequately prepared to defend themselves from one.

Solution:
IT MSPs help small businesses improve cybersecurity, meet compliance requirements, and safeguard sensitive data against evolving threats.

o Risk Assessment and Compliance: MSPs perform thorough risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with regulations and data protection standards.

o Security Infrastructure Setup: MSPs design and implement a customised, robust cybersecurity infrastructure with firewalls, intrusion detection systems, antivirus software, and other tools to protect against cyber threats.

o Threat Monitoring and Detection: MSPs use advanced monitoring tools to continuously detect and respond to malicious activity, minimising its impact on your business.

o Endpoint Security: MSPs secure endpoints (laptops, desktops, mobile devices) with antivirus, encryption, and device management to protect against malware, breaches, and unauthorised access.

o Employee Training and Awareness: MSPs offer cybersecurity training to educate employees on best practices like identifying phishing and handling sensitive data securely.

o Data Backup and Recovery: as per previous post

o Response and Remediation: MSPs have response plans to quickly address and recover from cybersecurity incidents. They investigate, mitigate the impact, and implement preventive measures.

o Security Audits and Updates: MSPs conduct regular security audits to assess effectiveness, identify improvements, and ensure software and processes are up to date and compliant.

01/06/2023

Compliance & Protection: Backup & Disaster Recovery

Challenge:
Backup infrastructure and disaster recovery appear to be very complex and costly. That overlayed with a multitude of options available and the cost attached to them, they present some challenges for Small Businesses.

Solution:
Partnering with the outsourced IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) will help overcome those challenges:

o Customised Backup Solutions: MSPs can assess your business needs and design a tailored backup solution that aligns with your budget, data size, recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs). The right MSP will help you make an informed choice between cloud backup and on-premise.

o Disaster Recovery: IT MSPs will help you develop, implement, and further monitor comprehensive disaster recovery processes and policies. They will ensure that critical data is regularly backed up, reducing the risks of data loss and ensuring your business compliance.

o Data Encryption and Security: MSPs can implement encryption measures to protect sensitive business data during transit and at rest. They can also assist in implementing secure access controls and compliance measures to meet industry regulations.

o Testing and Verification: MSPs can regularly test backup and disaster recovery processes to ensure their effectiveness. This includes conducting mock disaster scenarios and validating the recoverability of critical systems and data.

o Scalability and Flexibility: MSPs can provide scalable backup solutions that can accommodate the growing data needs of small businesses. They can also adapt the backup strategy as the business evolves or new technologies emerge.

01/06/2023

We continue sharing our list of useful features.

Let us know if you have other questions about ? - We would be very happy to answer them for you.

Collaboration with external users: Teams lets you collaborate with people outside your organization. You can invite external guests to join your Teams channels and participate in chats and meetings.

Chat with external user:
1. In the Teams interface, click on the "Chat" tab on the left-hand side.
2. Click on the "New chat" button.
3. Enter the external user's email address in the "To" field.
4. Once the external user's name appears in the dropdown, select it and the chat will start.

To hold a meeting with the external user:
1. Click on the "Calendar" tab in the Teams interface.
2. Click on the "New meeting" button to create a new meeting invitation.
3. Enter the meeting details, such as the title, date, and time.
4. In the "Attendees" field, enter the external user's email address.
5. Once the external user's name appears in the dropdown, select it.
6. Add any additional details to the meeting invitation and click on the "Send" button.

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31/05/2023

31/05/2023

Cost of IT Support

*Challenge:
It is assumed that IT support means significant expenses related to technology, such as maintaining internal IT teams and investing in new solutions or hardware upgrades.
These costs can be burdensome, particularly considering the limited resources and smaller budgets typically associated with SMBs.

*Solution:
Outsource IT support team (MPS- managed service provider).
What are the benefits:

1. Lower cost- the cost could vary depending on the level of support required. Largely there are 4 main types of contracts:
o Monthly support- based on a fixed cost per user per month;
o PAYG- based on the actual number of hours of service provided;
o Project-based AND Consultancy- these two are usually as a top-up service for the existing IT team.

2. Greater value through:
o Access to a larger and more experienced team of engineers;
o Quicker turnaround and resolution times;
o Transparency and accountability- outsourced IT MPS would keep track of the issues logged and time recorded against them;
o Access to other resources- like an offsite backup. Deploying your own backup infrastructure may be costly for a small business, but your IT MSP may be able to offer that for you at a significantly reduced cost;
o Scalability – as your business needs change, outsourced MSP would be able to quickly react and adapt with you with no or little change to your business set-up:
o Compliance- you will be sharing responsibility for the compliance with your IT provider as it is their job to keep an eye on the policies, and compliance and advise you accordingly.

30/05/2023

We continue sharing our list of useful features.

Let us know if you have other questions about ? - We would be very happy to answer them for you.

Today we are covering a hot topic of SECURING YOUR TEAMS MEETING

There are several ways you can secure your meeting and prevent unauthorised access:

1. Use a unique meeting link and a password.
- In the meeting options, enable the "Require meeting password" setting. Ideally, send the link and the password separately.

2. Enable meeting lobby. With the lobby enabled, you can review and admit participants before they can join the meeting. To enable the meeting lobby:
- After scheduling a meeting, you can modify the meeting options by clicking on the meeting in the Teams calendar or from the chat conversation.
- In the meeting options, under "Who can bypass lobby?", select "Only me" or "People in my organization" to require participants to wait in the lobby.
- To admit participants from the lobby, click on the "Admit" button next to their name.

3. Control meeting attendees’ actions:
- Screen sharing: it can be restricted to only the meeting organiser or specific individuals. In the meeting options, look for the "Who can present?" setting and select the appropriate option.
- Additionally, you can disable participants from unmuting themselves, disable meeting chat, and control other permissions based on your requirements.
- Admit or remove participants during a meeting:
- During a meeting, the organizer and co-organizers can manage participants by accessing the participant list.
- Click on the "Show participants" icon in the meeting controls to open the participant list.
- In the participant list, you can see who has joined the meeting and their status.
- To remove a participant from the meeting, hover over their name and click on the "Remove" button.

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26/05/2023

We continue sharing our list of useful features.

Let us know if you have other questions about ? - We would be very happy to answer them for you.

1. Video call background effects:
Teams provides a range of background effects to customise your video calls. You can blur your background or choose from a collection of pre-set images.

To BLUR your background:
a. Join a meeting or start a video call in Teams.
b. Once the call has started, locate the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and click on the three-dot ellipsis icon (...)
c. From the menu that appears, select "Blur my background."

To choose a pre-set background:
d. Follow step a-c as above but instead select "Show background effects." You'll see a sidebar on the right-hand side with various background options.
e. Browse through the available backgrounds, select the one you want to use, and it will be applied to your video call.

To upload your custom background:
d. Follow step a-c as above but instead select "Show background effects."
e. In the sidebar on the right, click on the "+" icon next to "Add new." Upload an image from your PC/ drive.

2. Saved messages: You can save important messages in Teams to refer to them later.
- Right-click on a message and select "Save this message." You can access all your saved messages by clicking on your profile picture and selecting "Saved."

3. Command shortcuts: in the top search box type / and you will see a drop-down menu of pre-set commands available to you. It’s a quick way to navigate around MS Teams or perform a task.

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25/05/2023

Any small business faces challenges.
And when it comes to IT and Technology, due to its technical element, those challenges may seem even greater to overcome. Especially as the shifts in technology and security today are challenging more than ever.

So we will try to help to deconstruct some of the perceptions about IT and discuss possible solutions.
Here are the top challenges associated with IT.

#1 IT Cost
#2: Compliance & Protection: Backup & Disaster Recovery
#3: Compliance & Protection: Cyber Security
#4: Compliance: Data Management
#5: Technology: Integration and Compatibility
#6: IT Strategy (limited or lack of it)
#7: Future Proofing: Set Up For Growth & New Technology
#8: Onboarding and User Training

Follow us, in the next couple of weeks we will discuss each of the above topics in greater detail.

Stay tuned!

24/05/2023

We've complied a list of very useful features.
We shall post these throughout the next few days. So please stay tuned.

Let us know if you have other questions about ? - We would be very happy to answer them for you.

1. Priority Access:
Set priority access to specific individuals or groups by marking someone as a priority access contact, and their messages and notifications will always come through, even in busy or "do not disturb" status.
- Click on your profile pictures in Teams to open the drop-down menu
- Select "Settings" to open the Teams settings panel.
- In the settings panel, navigate to the "Notifications" tab, scroll down to the "Priority access" section and click on "Manage priority access."
- In the priority access settings, you'll see two options: "Contacts" and "Everyone else."
- Under the "Contacts" section, you can add specific people or groups by clicking on the "+" icon. A dialog box will appear where you can search for the contact or group you want to give priority access. Type their name, select them and click "Add."
- Customize their priority level by using the "Priority" slider. Sliding it to the right increases their priority.
- You can enable or disable the "Repeat notifications" option. When enabled, Teams will continue to send notifications for priority contacts until you acknowledge them.
- After setting up priority access, click "Done" to save the changes and exit the settings panel.

2. Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+E will take you to the search bar, Ctrl+Shift+M will mute/unmute your microphone, and Ctrl+Shift+O will turn your camera on/off.
- For more shortcuts click at (…) in the top right corner of the screen
- Drop down menu will appear- select ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’
- Click to view a full list of MS Teams shortcut commands

3. Meet Now: to quickly start an ad-hoc meeting- use the "Meet Now" feature.
- Click on the Meet Now button in the calendar section or the chat header to instantly initiate a meeting.

16/03/2023

Microsoft today confirmed that its new Bing Chat ran OpenAI's GPT-4 all along. OpenAI announced GPT-4 today.